Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister of State and the officials. I am interested to hear a little bit more about the cost of the investment in generating units for a short period.

It is a very different provision from the norm. It is a sort of outside-of-the-market provision. What penalty are we paying for going for short-term standby capacity compared with what we would have paid in normal auctions?

The second issue is what will happen at the end of the period. As I understand it, it is a short period during which we contract to have these units operating as a standby. At the end of the period what happens to the asset? Does it have a second-hand value? Is it likely to be sold to one of the existing providers? It seems to me that this is the sort of technology we will need, at least in the long term, that is, the capacity to come in with relatively small loads and to fire up quickly. It would therefore seem a shame if we were to pay a premium and then the capacity had to go again when we still would need it for the transition. I am interested to hear the Minister of State's view on that side of this.

As for the bidding arrangement now taking place, I recall the Minister stating that there is a time limit now in that this has to be urgently tendered for. Do we know at this point whether many bidders are coming in or whether it will be a competitive auction? Obviously, we would not want to find ourselves over a barrel in having to pay over the price. I would like to get a little insight into the costings and so on.