Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent)
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It is heartening that the technologies, as a collective set, are there. That is clear. It is clear we are not hearing an obstacle. Mr. Smith said in his opening statement that while any one of these solutions might not meet the storage needs, there is a portfolio of relatively sustainable technologies that together can combine. That is very important in the context of something this committee has examined previously, namely the importance of avoiding and moving away from the excessively long hangover from gas and discussion of LNG and so forth, which are dangerous on a lot of levels, both physically and as regards volatility, as well as in tying us into the long term, if we are going to look at a proper shift fully from fossil fuels. What the witnesses are describing to us is that they need levels of certainty. There are certain certainties that are really appropriate, and should be, and there are certain certainties that we need to come to with a grain of salt. I am struck by the two pieces Mr. Smith mentions: EirGrid and the idea of co-ordination. He spoke about this portfolio and the technologies that are there as a set of it. The witnesses are looking, as I understand it, for almost a co-ordination piece around that, such that there is a vision of how they will fit together and so on. Is procurement one of the key pieces? I refer to the length of procurement and the long-term contract. Those are things I think we can deliver. Sometimes when I hear about wanting to know how much profit will be made, I hear the "reasonable expectations" language, which moves into something the fossil fuel industry has exploited to quite a degree in respect of court cases and the energy charter, which I believe is on the way out. What we do not want is to fall into the misery of the litigious model of reasonable expectations under the Energy Charter Treaty, which we know is effectively close to dead in the water, if Ireland would only realise it, catch up and get ahead with that.

Mr. Blount mentioned certainty. Can we just be clear? Procurement does deliver that. Is that the case in terms of long-term procurement contracts or clarity on that? Could the witnesses elaborate a little on the kind of co-ordination they see happening? Maybe they could elaborate a little on the different technologies, such as hydro-storage and lithium-ion batteries, and then the emerging piece - the liquid air, compressed air and green hydrogen. Is there a procurement piece for the existing ones and then an investment piece for the State, maybe, as regards those emerging technologies? Could the witnesses clarify what security looks like for them, their sectors or those they represent in terms of delivering what we all want, which is genuinely green energy storage for the long term?