Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

"Yes" is the answer and we are providing additional resources to the CRU, including staff, and EirGrid. They are less constrained.

They have an income stream that enables them to hire the resources they need and to bring in outside expertise as well. Critically, An Bord Pleanála needs additional staff resources. It is hard to get people with the planning and other skills that are needed but it is absolutely central to all of this that we do so.

The particular concern of the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, in its report published yesterday was in regard to agriculture and transport. On the energy side, there is increasing confidence that we will meet the targets because the whole world is moving in this direction. The need for energy security, the cost-of-living aspect and the climate reason will see us delivering on our targets.

On the design of the auctions, I have always favoured not including index-linking because, in truth, the cost of wind or sun is not going to change. The upfront capital cost is set and it is covered in any auction bid. One other variation we may look at in the future design of auctions is whether we are right to go with a technology-neutral approach where solar and wind are included in the one auction bid. We may look to see whether their separation into two elements might be a further way of reducing costs. That is one of the measures we may consider collectively.

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