Ms Marie Donnelly:

I would say, however, that installing a back-up LNG terminal now is a very expensive option because it would mean a minimum investment of €1 billion. If we were to find ourselves in such a difficulty, I would have thought our European neighbours will assist us with the loan of, for example, a floating LNG terminal.

The Deputy also asked about nuclear power. Permit me to be a little impolitic. It is not a surprise that Europe would accept nuclear power as green. We have a very large member state that is almost exclusively dependent on nuclear power. The likelihood is that it would be persuasive in its arguments to include nuclear power on the list. Nuclear power, of itself, does not emit greenhouse gases but the difficulty is what can be done with the nuclear waste. That is a serious challenge. Small-scale nuclear is being developed and perhaps it will be useful, going forward. We will have to wait and see.