Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The contemplated wind export project in the midlands was a discrete and ring-fenced project that had nothing at all to do with our capacity to meet our domestic needs. We are on track to have 40% of our electricity generated from renewables by 2020.

By any European standard, that is considered to be at the leading edge in terms of what any transmission system can accommodate. We remain satisfied that we will reach that target and all of the evidence shows that we will. It is not a case of being able to divert what might have happened in the midlands into an additional quantum of renewable energy generation on top of the 40%. A hugely complex technical study is under way to measure the capacity of the transmission system in terms of how much any transmission system can accommodate in terms of renewables. Therefore, that is not the concern. The projects were entirely separate.

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