Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister for his reply and I welcome the increased output from wind generation, which is moving towards 1,000 MW. The fact that the concern comes from EirGrid means we have been given fair warning that there is a significant likelihood of power cuts this winter. Last December Ireland reached a record usage of more than 5,000 MW. This year it will increase by 2-3%. Does the Minister agree that while we have a maximum generation capacity of just over 6,000 MW, for the majority of the time we operate at approximately 78% output, or 4,800 MW, which is significantly short of the output we need? Does the key concern not relate to the three plants the ESB is required to decommission and therefore are not investing in and upgrading, which increases the likelihood of outages from those plants? Is it not a key concern that the ESB is required to close plants when there is high demand pressure? Must not the overriding priority be security of supply, even more than pricing and competitiveness?

See this speech in context