Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. As he rightly stated, I have not previously heard the statements he put forward today and they are not in documents I received before this, but I will try to address them.

On procurement, the Deputy raises a question about whether additional energy generation capacity was correctly procured. There is the possibility under European and Irish law to procure things in an emergency capacity when they are needed. That is strictly laid out in law. There are certain situations where a contracting authority can decide to go through an accelerated form of procurement, to skip things like competition, quality control and transparency, where that is warranted and it is an emergency situation. If the Deputy has a particular question about a particular procurement, I am willing to investigate it.

The Deputy also made reference to, I think, a cosy arrangement between the ESB and EirGrid and he suggested the shortage of energy supply for this winter could in some way possibly have been orchestrated by the ESB. These are serious things to say. I invite the Deputy to substantiate them with more information. I will talk to the Minister, Deputy Ryan, about it as well. His office and my office are open to the Deputy if he wants to come forward with more information or if he wants to have the matter investigated further. As I said, they are very serious things to say.

In terms of the midlands, it has always had a critical role in the generation, distribution and supply of electricity throughout the country or the supply of energy at least in different ways. That will continue. It is Government policy to make sure the midlands is invested in, there is a just transition, and more capacity in renewable energy is focused on the midlands to replace what was there and what is part of the heritage of the midlands.

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