Mr. Jim Gannon:

I will ask Commissioner MacEvilly to pick up on one or two of the other questions, please, if there is not anything I have addressed.

In respect to Ireland and the high energy prices, we are an isolated country at the end of a long set of wires and pipes. We have very low levels of indigenous, primary fuels to help us out in respect of what we had, such as oil, gas, and coal, with declining gas, if anything, in the country. Importation of gas will probably continue to get more expensive over time and it is also more carbon intensive than our own national resources.

Separately, I mentioned the report of ACER earlier where higher gas dependency meant that we are subject to those higher prices more than other countries. That remains the case. Again, we are at the end of a pipe from the North Sea and other resources.

Low interconnection also factors into it, notwithstanding the fact that this is now being addressed with the Celtic interconnector and the Greenlink interconnector and there is more interest in further interconnection from the UK and, perhaps, other jurisdictions. This will be very important in respect of our ability to move from the renewable energies we have to satisfy our own targets and demand, to ensuring that we can satisfy other markets and generate national wealth from our natural resources.

Finally, we have a dispersed population by comparison with other European countries. This means we have more wires, that we need to develop more wires, but also, to maintain those wires. It is critical that we invest in those wires but that is more expensive and will continue to be more expensive.