The Commission for Energy Regulation, CER, was requested by my predecessor to assess, in the first instance, the degree of interest in developing merchant interconnection. It reported last June that there was insufficient interest on the part of the private sector to construct "pure" merchant interconnectors without financial underpinning of any form. However, the CER's overall impression from the submissions it had received from interested parties was that there was a genuine interest on the part of several key industry players in developing east-west interconnection on the basis of hybrid merchant-regulated type interconnection.
Accordingly, the CER has been requested to develop proposals to activate a process exploring all possible options for the development of the two 500 MW electricity interconnectors on a hybrid-regulated basis. The CER is engaging external professional advice to assist it in framing a competitive type process to deliver the interconnection at the earliest possible date.
Turning to the second part of the Deputy's question, under the provisions of the EU Electricity Directive 2003-54-EC concerning common rules for the internal market in electricity and repealing Directive 96-92-EC, to avoid imbalance in the opening of electricity markets, the supply of electricity to customers deemed eligible in other member states shall not be prohibited.
Also, it is not possible to prohibit electricity generated from nuclear sources being imported over the proposed east-west interconnectors, since it is not physically possible to prevent the flow of nuclear generated electricity onto the network. This is the case with the existing interconnection between Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland through the Moyle interconnector.
The Deputy may wish to note that with the implementation of the above mentioned electricity directive, shortly, all electricity suppliers will be required to specify in or with the electricity bills and in promotional material made available to final customers, the contribution of each energy source to the overall fuel mix of the supplier over the preceding year. I am confident, given the known popular opposition to nuclear energy in Ireland, that suppliers would not knowingly contract for electricity imports clearly traceable to nuclear stations or that Irish consumers would knowingly buy any. There is simply no business case for selling nuclear energy in Ireland.
