Jerry Buttimer (Cork South-Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I again thank Deputy Ó Muirí for raising the matter, which is of critical importance. The Deputy is right that there must be learnings from what happened yesterday, whatever the cause of the Iberian blackout is, and that has not been confirmed yet. The authorities in Portugal and Spain are continuing to assess the cause and it may take time. The point the Deputy makes is that we must take learnings from this.

In Ireland, EirGrid recently published a resource adequacy assessment, which has forecast a significant improvement in terms of security of supply over the next ten years. The Commission for Regulation of Utilities-led programme of actions has delivered a number of actions to ensure security of electricity supply since 2021, namely, temporary emergency generation and the conversion of Moneypoint from coal to heavy fuel oil. Moreover, a number of generation projects have been delivered in recent years, including capacity market projects, renewables and, as I said, a new 500 MW interconnector to Britain has begun operation. Emergency exercises regularly take place with key stakeholders to test the resilience of our national grid in extreme scenarios like this.

As the Deputy rightly said, it is incumbent on us to take the learnings, to plan and to understand what has happened here, and to bring the learnings and best outcomes for our country to ensure we have security of supply. I will bring the Deputy’s concerns and his points back to the Minister.

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