Mr. Evan Walker:

The Deputy asked about the EAI. I did consult with that body. We had stakeholder engagement with all of the main representative bodies, that is, Wind Energy Ireland, EAI, IBEC and the Irish Wind Farmers Association. In addition to those representative bodies, there was also engagement with individual firms but they were all taken together. There were at least 30 entities per stakeholder engagement. The EAI was on the call. In both the regulatory impact assessment and the briefing, we have summarised the views of the sector, which will obviously differ from the objective of Government, which is to capture the windfall gain.

The Deputy asked whether we agree with EAI's view that a windfall tax will deter future investment. We have looked at ex-postevaluations of windfall taxes in many jurisdictions and across different sectors from the banking windfall tax under Margaret Thatcher's government right up to energy windfall taxes in Australia in 2008. We looked at approximately ten case studies where there is clear ex-postevaluation. The evidence is mixed. If you express even a passing interest in windfall taxes, you will hear strong assertions that the implementation of windfall taxes will definitely deter investment. The situation is a lot more nuanced and complex than that. It depends on the degree to which you can actually capture the windfall. To define a windfall, it is the excess return above the normal expected return. As long as you are targeting the excess above what was expected, the impact on future investment should be limited. The period is also very important. A temporary and clearly defined windfall intervention limits the long-term effect on investment. That is what we have done here. We have tried to clearly identify where there are windfall gains in excess of expected returns as reflected by what wind farms got for their refit prices. We have only targeted the revenue above that and it is clear that this intervention is temporary and time-bound. We have done everything possible in line with the previous literature and case studies to mitigate the risk.