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

It is true we have been working with the CRU and EirGrid for some time now, going back to last September or beyond, recognising that we had a power shortage and had to close the gap. However, as for the cost to which the Deputy refers, the approach of using the purchase of open-cycle aeroderivative generation in the way we propose here was not considered until earlier this year, certainly nowhere near last September. I will come back and check that. If Deputy Whitmore shares the correspondence with me, I will check it. To come back to the key point for the household, the figure the Deputy quotes is higher than what we expect the CRU says is the estimated cost. That does not include the potential resale value of the machines, which to my mind will have the potential of clawing back a lot of that cost. Every other European, especially northern European, country is in a similar position for a variety of reasons. They are short on power, and if they switch to renewables they will be using and looking to this sort of open-cycle aeroderivative capacity. I believe that value will go back to the Irish public in the end.

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