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

This has been a long, drawn-out process, because it is important to get it right. The original study started in 2021. We approached SEPA, a consultancy company which did a lot of detailed analysis to the end of this decade. Furthermore, when we had agreed our energy security paper, we commissioned GNI to look at various options such as onshore, offshore, gas caverns and so on. They came back to us saying that it likely would not be until the next decade that a facility would be available and that it would have certain characteristics. They favoured a floating storage regassifacition unit, FRSU, system, which was different from what we had originally thought, in terms of the amount of boil-off gas and some other technical aspects.

What has also changed in recent years is that we have seen the ability for interconnectors to dramatically improve and help us in energy security and emissions in the State. Given that there is the potential for new interconnectors to be connected to us, early in the next decade, that may provide a much better security option than having to have a gas backup facility. We have to do the detailed analysis as to what is the demand curve on gas - particularly including peak demand - and can we cover that in other ways.

What has also changed and needs further analysis is short-term and long-term battery storage. This has dramatically changed in the past two years, since this research started. It is that sort of analysis that I am looking to see, that we may not need any facility.

See this speech in context