Ms Aoife MacEvilly:

I will make a start on those questions and then bring other colleagues in. With regard to the winter security of supply provision, it is fair to say that we are not resting on our laurels at the moment. It has been our experience over the past years that some of the most challenging periods have come in February and March. We are continuing to sustain the same level of preparedness throughout the winter. It is worth noting that when we had the record demand periods in the run-up to Christmas - the committee will recall that very cold period - it was accompanied by very low wind. There was a similar situation in the UK, which also had very tight margins and low wind. At the time there were also very tight margins in France. Given that we are all interconnected, we were all experiencing tight margins. What stood us in good stead was the level of work done by the system operator, EirGrid, particularly over the summer, to try to schedule planned maintenance of plant so that the plant we have on the system, that is, the dispatchable plant that are available at times of low wind, were in a good position and had good availability throughout that period. Ironically, as the Cathaoirleach has said, the periods when we have been most at risk in previous years were the summer periods. The amber alerts that have come in August have been because we had to schedule maintenance of plant so they will be ready for the peak winter period. That leaves the system tight in the summer. In this particular scenario in December, it left us in a good position to manage through a period of sustained cold and low wind, albeit again with tight margins. We did get interconnector support from Great Britain, GB, but it was managed very carefully because there were also tight margins in GB and in France. We are continuing to work closely. We meet on a two-weekly basis with EirGrid to monitor that situation carefully. There is a range of backup measures that we put in place over the past years that we would implement, if needed, if we had further periods of cold weather. We were really happy to see that in December, we got through that period. The other measures we are taking for ensuring capacity and for temporary emergency generation will help us out next winter.

I will speak briefly on demand-side flexibility. This is absolutely crucial to our transition. It is important at times for security of supply. We have seen, not just in Ireland but also throughout Europe and the UK, that there is a greater emphasis on the impact of reducing demand to support security of supply. It is actually really important when we come into a high-renewables system where we will want to have flexible demand, and perhaps demand that is incentivised to come in when there are higher renewables and lower prices, and to step out when there are lower renewables and higher prices, to make it more cost-effective for customers. There are ways we are doing that through our smart metering programme. This gives prompts for customers to move demand off-peak. In future, there may also be more dynamic tariffs that will really help customers to benefit from lower wind periods. We need to roll this out now to the large-demand users. There is the existing cohort that might have the capability to be flexible, and we can think about how we are bringing new large demand onto the system to ensure that this is built in. In effect, we could have large new-demand customers that are effectively net zero, which would be the aspiration of some of those cohorts when they enter our system, and they can help us to support the system in managing the high-renewables vision.

I will talk briefly about the step-in challenge and then I will hand over to Mr. Gannon on the enduring connection policy. We are all hiring at the moment in the energy space. The scale of work required to manage through the energy transition is only really becoming apparent as we work through successive iterations of the climate action plan and what it will really take to put in place the regulatory frameworks that facilitate the incredible societal change and the incredible technology and innovation shift we need to deliver the low-carbon vision. We are hiring. We have had permission from the Department to bring in new staff. We are competing against industry, which is in the same space. We are probably competing against our own Department, against EirGrid, and other State actors. It will be a challenge. We would certainly look to all options. As a regulator, one of the things we offer is that public interest mandate. We are aware there are a lot of people leaving college who really want to make a difference to their communities and to society and who wish to be able to say after a couple of years of working with the CRU that they have made a positive impact for customers, in the climate space. We can offer that. It will be ongoing. We will be hiring constantly for the next few years. I would say that we will be coming back to the Department again looking at further increases in the scale of the organisation that will be required to deliver on the mandate.