Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Independent)

This legislation is welcome, if modest. As others have mentioned, it is a response to disruption caused by Storm Éowyn. It will allow for the creation and maintenance of forestry corridors and vegetation management, subject hopefully to environmental obligations under the Habitats and Birds Directives. I have no problem with the legal mechanism to make an additional €1.5 billion equity investment in the ESB to part finance the PR6 energy grid investment programme. However, I am more interested in the larger scale investment required. Obviously, we note the proposal to raise the statutory borrowing limit from €12 billion to €17 billion to help to finance proposed future capital projects, including the new lines, the underground cables, the upgraded substations and the 50,000-plus electricity poles. It is a massive investment that is needed but we need to see the detail of what is coming to modernise and future-proof the grid.

We are talking about a potential €10 billion to €13 billion investment plan up to 2030. However, a couple of things need to go alongside this. I note a private wires policy statement was published in July that outlined scenarios whereby private developers can build and own electricity lines to connect generators to customers. I do not have an issue with that in principle but I do have an issue if it is purely to allow companies to create their own private sections that will impact on the grid. My definition of private wires would be more about an area like a housing estate that has a wind turbine beside it or an array of solar panels where people can be offgrid in a situation like a storm so they are able to switch over to their own group generator. I would like to get more information on that type of thing.

I agree that data centres need to be able to produce their own energy and feed into the grid rather than taking out of what we already have.

To be positive, I notice the microgeneration support scheme and the clean export guarantee tariff already in place for exporting excess renewable electricity to the grid. On a massive national scale in terms of having the potential to be exporters, we have to first of all make sure that we are efficient in our usage. In that context, I agree with colleagues in terms of subsidising the bills people are facing right now. It does make sense to continue it. I welcomed the continuation of the 9% VAT on electricity but I do not see anything going towards getting people to reduce their energy consumption. Back in the 1970s, we used to hear about closing doors and switching off all plugs because there is seepage from leaving on Wi-Fi at night-time or from leaving USB chargers plugged in. There is not enough information out there to help people to reduce their bills. I have noticed that constituents, especially older ones, do not change over their tariff after a year has elapsed. They are stuck in an overpriced standard tariff when they could be saving money. I agree that the Government should be helping people during these tight times. However, we should also provide people with more education about how to reduce bills themselves.

I have mentioned in previous contributions that the visionary aspect should be that we should be a net energy exporter, assuming we have capacity for ourselves. To get to that, we need to have more consistency and more clarity on the energy storage policy framework, for example, which has an immediate procurement target of 500 MW for the transmission system and 500 MW for demand flexibility for the distribution. However, there are criticisms about this. There is no long-term concrete mechanism or any example of urgency. I would like to see clarification in terms of long-duration energy storage.

That would be beneficial, as would conversion to green hydrogen. We also have a lack of cohesion between the stakeholders in terms of the planning, EirGrid and the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU. I do not see the joined-up thinking to meet our climate action targets or our energy production targets. If we want to get to net exporter status, we need to fast-track our investment in the grid. While this €1.5 billion is welcome, we need a tangible €13.5 billion-plus investment to happen in the next three to four years.

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