Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The amount of money raised from the measures that we have agreed at European Council, such as the inframarginal pricing and the solidarity contribution of fossil fuels, is hard to estimate exactly because it depends on so many different variables – the price of gas and, as a consequence, wholesale electricity prices. The good news is that while they are still historically incredibly high prices, it is a fraction now of what the prices were two or three months ago. The reduction is welcome, however, it still leaves us in a difficult situation. It would also depend, to a certain extent, on the timelines that supply whether the measures are extended beyond original provisions and also the rates and levels that apply. The European Union is recommending that it is beyond €180 per MWh that inframarginal pricing would kick in and this windfall would be gained. However, we have the capability of lowering that and that is something we are looking at.

Similarly, on the contribution, the European Commission is recommending 35%, or setting that as within the terms, but recognising that it could go higher. As I said, there is work ongoing with the Department of Finance and my Department to get the details on this. We have to have it in place before the end of the year. We want the revenue in quickly.

I expect the inframarginal revenue to go towards reducing electricity bills directly. That would be the best use of it. The solidarity contribution may be useful in the context of wider supports. We are looking at including business supports and so on. As already stated, I estimate that it will be between €1 billion and €2 billion, but we will have more specifics on that in the coming weeks when we agree the final details, the timelines and so on.

With regard to the emergency purchasing of aeroderivative jet engines, I thank the Chair and the committee for their involvement. The timeline and speed of progressing the legislation, along with the waiving of pre-legislative scrutiny for aspects of this, which we have had to do, has been extraordinary. It is unfortunate and we would prefer not to be in this situation. We are doing it to make sure that we have sufficient power supply next winter. The provisions came from the CRU asking that EirGrid would purchase the equipment. We are supporting that. It is the last resort. The timeline potentially goes to the winter of 2026-27, as I said in my opening remarks. The expectation is that the generators deploying them would have to sell on the relevant equipment. In my mind, we can probably recoup revenue to recover some of these costs. We have not provided for this because it is an unknown. I expect there will be a significant return to Revenue when that is done, and then, as the Deputy said, that equipment can then be used in a range of other operations. My expectation and preference is that it will be used on the island of Ireland because we will need fast-reacting open-cycle distillate, gas-fired or hydrogen-fired backup generation, which is what the equipment that we will contract in the coming days or weeks will provide. We are not providing for it in the Estimates because it is an unknown, but I expect there will be a significant return to the State at the end of this emergency process, when it is unwound.