Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. We all know that households have to play their part in reducing their demand, and smart meters are part of that. I have flagged numerous times that many people who live in apartments and flats are being gaslit by the Government's policy when they hear people on the radio telling them when is a good time to dry their clothes outside when they are not actually allowed to do that under their residential tenancy agreements.

The question today, however, is about looking at electricity demand overall as a society and the impact that is having on people's household bills. We know from EirGrid's forecasting that even with the electrification of heat and transport in households, the biggest driver of electricity demand in this country is from large energy users and data centres. Will the Minister of State commit to providing us with the two updates he gave to the European Commission on Ireland's progress to reaching our targets on overall electricity demand reduction? How many people in the Department are actually working on reducing demand? I am not referring to demand-side reduction but to reducing our overall demand for electricity?