Mr. Jim Gannon:

I will start on some of that and might defer to my colleagues then. In terms of the question on the November 2021 decision regarding the difference between an ability to reduce demand versus an obligation to do so, through the security of supply programme of work we have demonstrated the ability to implement an obligation to reduce demand through the mandatory curtailment exercise. What we were ensuring was that the technical ability would be designed into these facilities to satisfy an obligation, or to increase the accessibility of that obligation, should we need to mandatorily reduce or curtail use. This winter, while we did see peak demand in that significantly cold period we did not have an amber alert and although we had an ability to call on mandatory demand curtailment, we did not do so nor would we unless we were in peril.

In terms of the first piece, the answer is "Yes". The November 2021 decision was followed quickly by an updated Government policy statement on the role of data centres in enterprise policy, which outlined some principles for data centre development. Subsequently and significantly, we now have the sectoral carbon ceilings for 2025 and 2030. Again, subsequent to that, we have capped 2023. We have already engaged with the system operators around an update to our connections policy. That review will take place this year. We have spoken in that dialogue about the decarbonisation of economic growth, about the fact that we now have sectoral carbon ceilings and how they should be taken into consideration in connections policy. It may be the case that this requires changes to legislation and again, we are working through that with the system operators and the Department. Separately, Ms MacEvilly has noted the capped 2023 demand-side strategy, which I will not repeat again.