John Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)

The SEM Bill is the first legislative step in the establishment of an all-island energy market. It puts in place a single wholesale market for the island of Ireland. As a result of issues raised on Committee Stage, we gave this serious consideration because there is merit in the issues raised by Deputies in the context of the long-term establishment of an all-island energy market. The appropriate time to debate these issues, however, is when legislation is being introduced to deal with that all-island market. The SEM committee has a purely technical regulatory role in the operation of the wholesale electricity market and in that context the types of representations being proposed would not be appropriate.

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