Mr. Nicholas Tarrant:

I thank the Deputy for his questions. On his first question on the use of land, our role in ESB Networks is around the connection of renewable projects. The climate action plan for 2030, as set out by the Government, has a target of 17 GW of power generation between onshore wind and solar projects. We do not decide how the land is used for those projects. Our role comes into play when a developer seeks to connect to the network, say in respect of the distribution system. We will review that application. The Deputy mentioned the ECP process. We will consider it in the context of the large projects. We include it as part of it and then issue connection offers. We do not, though, have a say as to what land is used as part of that undertaking.

It is probably worth mentioning that if we look at the CSO numbers for the total available agricultural land, that about 4.9 million ha are available for use for agriculture. If we then look at the Government's target for solar power generation, it specifies that 8 GW of power is to be generated out to 2030, of which 5.5 GW would be with larger-scale projects. If we look at the land use for those projects and estimate the land that would be used, the total amount would come to around 0.2% of the available agricultural land. We believe it is possible to balance the need for agriculture and food security in the context of the climate transition, and to work with those two aspects in tandem. We do not, however, have a role in deciding how land is used. Our role is really around connections.

The Deputy also mentioned the 94,000 projects. This is specifically to do with roof-top solar generation at domestic level. It has been growing substantially in recent years. In our opening statement, we mentioned that has been growing at a rate of 750 a week. The way it is managed from the perspective of ESB Networks is that it is done on a fit-and-inform basis. This is where a solar installer will put the installation on someone's house. A form will then be submitted to us in ESB Networks to inform us about that installation and we then process it. We have enhanced our processing to be able to do this on an automated basis and to progress this endeavour at that volume of completing 750 a week. We expect this number to continue to grow and our system can take it. The benefit customers also get through the smart-metering programme is that they get paid for their exports of electricity onto the distribution network.

In his third question, the Deputy also mentioned the ECP. He is correct that up to the most recent ECP round, this has been done on an annual basis. There was a reason for doing it that way. It was to allow us, and similarly for EirGrid on the transmission side of things, to look at the applications coming in for a particular substation or part of the grid. Instead of doing them in a sequential manner, we look at the applications that come in for a particular part of the network and assess what kind of work will be required and hence the connection cost for a project. If you do not do that as a batch, it makes it very difficult to plan the network.

That is why there was a history of doing that on a once per annum basis and then allowing the projects to go forward into the annual renewable auction process, which is the RESS process. We expect that will change to a twice-a-year process, which will speed up access for projects to get their connection offers and then develop on the projects.

There is a current consultation being run by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities. We have already publicly said that we will support the introduction of a twice-a-year process for renewable connections to be considered and then offer it out to the marketplace.