Mr. Noel Cunniffe:

We are aware that the private wires Bill will progress through the Dáil next year and it is something we will absolutely be participating in. We very much welcome private wires. It should be possible to develop and connect a project, be it onshore wind, solar, battery energy storage or offshore wind energy, utilising a private wire. That is not currently legal so that is the objective of the Bill next year.

All of the phase 1 projects will have connections onto the transmission system. The Tonn Nua project will have a direct connection onto the transmission system. Where private wires could be extremely useful for future offshore wind energy is in aiding some of those additional sites in the south coast DMAP or some of those sites on the national DMAP to be able to connect directly, be it a future pharmaceutical plant, a new industry or indeed green fuels as the Deputy has set out.