Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle. On that very issue, on the auctions that EirGrid talks about into the future, I was checking back on when this issue emerged and on the severity associated with it. Previous auctions, for example, were won by the ESB. On four separate occasions, when the four-year period had almost expired for the provision of these projects into the national grid, the ESB withdrew from them and paid penalties. The grid was at the loss of 430 MW in addition to the 270 MW that was lost as a result of the closures at Shannonbridge and Lanesborough.

Did EirGrid in its briefing give an indication of how it might ensure in the future that the likes of that never happens again? Representatives like ourselves, and indeed me in my own constituency and region, were prepared to accept the acceleration of decarbonisation, which meant the closure of those power stations on the understanding that new grid projects would be provided. They certainly were not, however. I ask who was at the helm in EirGrid? Where was ComReg and the energy regulator and how do they propose to respond?

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