Energy Infrastructure
Seanad Éireann — 2021-12-07
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Ossian Smyth (GP), Dún Laoghaire

It is a judgment from the European Court of Justice.
On the question of whether the 2 GW of power we are commissioning will be covered by the Energy Charter Treaty, it depends on which countries win the contracts to build them. Those contracts have not been agreed or specified, so the terms are not known. I take the Senator's point on how long it is going to last. We need 2 GW of power by 2030, but they are long-lasting pieces of infrastructure. Of course, as the Senator will understand, they are not designed to run all of the time. They are not for base load, they are for peaking power and for emergency times when power is needed, so there may be more capacity but less gas actually being burned.
Of course risk assessments will be carried out. The chance of being sued by an investor will be considered as part of the risk assessment when the contracts are drawn up under procurement.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2021-12-07/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:49:55+00:00
Sitting date: 2021-12-07