John Paul O'Shea (Cork North-West, Fine Gael)
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191. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the steps being taken to ensure that the expansion of the electricity grid keeps pace with increased demand from housing development and renewable energy projects in rural Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40856/26]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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Planning, developing, safely operating and maintaining the electricity system are functions which are assigned to the respective Distribution and Transmission System Operators and for which they are accountable to the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU). EirGrid, as Transmission System Operator, has responsibility for the development of the Transmission Network and ESB Networks, as Distribution System Operator, has responsibility for the development of the Distribution Network.

As set out in the Programme for Government ensuring that the necessary investment is made in the electricity grid is a priority for Government.

The CRU Price Review 6 (PR6) decision will see up to €18.9 billion invested in our electricity system over the coming 5 years, the largest ever electricity grid investment. This is a landmark investment to upgrade Ireland’s existing electricity infrastructure and deliver critical new infrastructure to meet future demand.

PR6 will unlock additional electricity capacity through an ambitious transmission and distribution capital programme, including 29 transmission priority projects and 31 distribution priority projects.

Government has established numerous taskforces focused on accelerating delivery of the electricity grid and generation assets. Cross Government work is ongoing to accelerate critical infrastructure including implementation of the Accelerating Infrastructure Action Plan and the 30, time bound, measures to remove barriers to infrastructure delivery.

ESB Networks, EirGrid and CRU can be contacted directly in relation to specific queries at oireachtas@esb.ie, oireachtas@eirgrid.com and oireachtas@cru.ie.