Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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293. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the work and progress of the Future Grid Working Group established in 2024; including its terms of reference, the frequency of its meetings, its membership, the key workstreams under way; the timeline for delivery of its outputs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29603/26]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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The Future Grid working group was established in 2024 under the Accelerating Renewable Electricity Taskforce (ARET). The working group fulfils a dual remit of:

(i) under ARET, accelerating delivery and development of the onshore electricity grid, identifying barriers to grid delivery and ensuring delivery of a grid that is consistent with 2030 targets; and

(ii) under Action 11 of the Energy Security Package, ensuring a fit for purpose electricity grid that supports Ireland’s energy and climate ambition.

The working group is chaired by my Department and brings together key stakeholders focused on grid delivery from the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, ESB Networks and EirGrid. The working group is currently developing Terms of Reference.

During 2024 and 2025 the working group met on a regular basis to progress its respective work plans. The work of the group is confidential in nature and does not have any publicly available output. During 2024 and 2025 the group worked to identify barriers to grid delivery culminating in this information being incorporated into the wider work of the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation on infrastructure acceleration.

As noted, a terms of reference for the group is currently under development and this is being progressed as part of a review of the remit and position of the group within the wider sphere of infrastructure acceleration.