Mr. Bobby Smith:

Of course. I will speak to that. I will start and then I am sure Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Blount will want to come in as well.

The Senator mentioned moving away from gas. We have not mentioned it yet, but long-duration storage can be viewed as a huge insurance policy against volatile gas price, which has obviously had a massive impact in Ireland in recent years. We spend 1.3% of GDP just on shielding consumers from the worst impacts. That does not even include the full cost, which runs to billions of euro. This is therefore a no-brainer in moving away from that volatility and protecting consumers. Investment in all this would deliver for a lot less than the cost impacts we have seen recently from fossil fuel gas volatility.

As regards that long-term certainty and what long-term contracts look like, I will answer the question about co-ordination. We are asking for co-ordination here because each of the stakeholders wants this to happen - EirGrid, the CRU and the Department. They want this to happen. They recognise that long-duration storage is one of the key solutions to the challenges we face. The problem is that each of them almost has a different role to play, and that is why they need to be co-ordinated in this. I mentioned that EirGrid has the technical expertise around the grid and operational and market experience, but it is not a policymaker in the sense we are talking about here today. It will not go ahead and just procure this itself without direction from the CRU on whether this is best value for consumers or whether it fits the mandate that the CRU is designed to fulfil, nor will it happen without a direction from the Department that this is part of broader national energy policy and energy security. That all needs to tie together.

That national energy policy need-----