Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

As this is an EPA Bill, it does not concern issues of demand prioritisation. Such issues apply to EirGrid, in consultation with CRU. EirGrid has a prioritisation mechanism. I have heard its chief executive speak about it at meetings of the Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action. I believe EirGrid is updating that into a more detailed programme, which it will finalise this year. The idea is that EirGrid will initially request large energy users to reduce their use and then mandate that they do so. Ultimately, they will curtail their supply - not entirely, initially, but by a large proportion. That is the mechanism that is in place at the moment. EirGrid is now working on a much more detailed prioritisation scheme of who comes first and so on among different energy users. It is a question of who gets curtailed and when. I suppose that fits in with having this emergency generation capacity on the grid.