 I'm still a learner about Irish energy policy. I have only in the last six months become much more involved in Irish policy as the commission's designated expert on the European semester with regard to energy. So I'm still learning and I beg your indulgence today if I say anything truly stupid or anything else, please accept my excuses in advance. The reason I'm here specifically to today is to talk about networks and renewables in particular from the Irish perspective because we in Brussels think that Ireland has a particular role to play immediately and over the long term for the achievement of European goals for renewables. And what we are hoping is that we will see a much greater expression of interest and involvement from the Irish energy community and the Irish political community in leadership on energy policy in this area. Because Ireland has so much to give, so much expertise, and there is so much opportunity. It would be a shame for Ireland to miss that for the future. Now I have some slides which I'll go through very quickly. I am also conscious that yesterday we had the announcement of the European Energy Union in Brussels which was as much as a surprise for me as perhaps it was for you because right up until the last moment the text were being changed. And I'm still not quite sure what we announced yesterday but insofar that I can help you on any point I'd be happy to help you on the energy union as well in addition to what I'm going to say about networks and grids. So let me get networks and grids out of the way first off. The first thing to bear in mind is that we are now in a European energy market where renewables in particular are cost competitive over the long term. So on what's called a levelised cost of electricity all renewables now are cost competitive to major competitors. It's only really the two dirtiest fuels, hard coal and brown coal, which retain a significant cost competitive advantage over other fuels. Onshore wind is particularly cost competitive. Offshore wind is in the money at some stages in the markets and over the long term will get further into the money. German in particular photovoltaic is already in the money in the central European market and there are lots of new technologies in the renewable sector which are coming on stream. The interesting thing about renewables is of course that in the majority of cases there is no fuel costs so once you have built the infrastructure and put everything in place the marginal cost of the extra unit of power is almost zero. And that leads to in continental Europe the perverse situation where you are paid to take electricity away. We've had several instances now of so-called negative prices where people are paid either to consume electricity or not to provide it. And that has had a stunning effect on overall electricity prices particularly in the core German and Danish markets. And in countries where there is a lower level of penetration of renewables you tend to have higher electricity costs. As you look across northwest Europe in particular you'll see electricity prices which are completely diverging and wholesale base load electricity in the first quarter of 2014 cost something in the region of 30 euros per megawatt hour in Germany and 60 euros per megawatt hour here in Ireland. And between Ireland and Germany you had another high price market which was the United Kingdom which I think was about 55. Netherlands was also higher than Germany. Denmark was lower than Germany. Denmark and Germany both have the highest penetration of renewables in northwest Europe and the link between that and the wholesale electricity price should be established in every policymaker's mind. What we need to see in northwest Europe and in Ireland in particular is a much greater penetration of renewables to bring down overall electricity prices to break the link between hydrocarbon costs and electricity prices. In our estimation the Irish electricity price which is very closely linked to the wholesale gas price isn't necessarily a good long term option for Ireland. And indeed I was joking with Amon just now saying that if I had thought that I would come to Ireland and say I know of a small European country which is entirely dependent on a single gas interconnector for its electricity supply to a former imperial power I would normally be thinking about central Europe not Ireland. But this is the case that in Ireland today the interconnector for the gas market is the single most important element of security of supply and for price setting in the electricity market. And that is a particular concern for us in the European Commission because it has implications for energy security and for long term pricing of electricity in Ireland. And if Ireland wants to become much more competitive needs to think about how it's going to achieve much lower electricity prices over the medium to long term. Now there are extremely good signs in the Irish context. We've seen the good news this week from Apple with this investment in Athenry which I think is very good vote of confidence for the Irish economy and for the Irish energy system particularly since it is considered that it will only use renewables. I think that's very good but I think there needs to be much more greater conception of Irish energy policy which is linked towards industrial and general economic and general ecological welfare than simply the economics of single parts of the supply chain for gas to the Irish economy. So what then is the solution? Well the solution that we would consider the most beneficial would be a rapid expansion of interconnectors that would allow for a greater amount of trade, electricity trade between wholesale markets and also in the future for Ireland to take up its role as a potential exporter of green energy to the heart of Europe. If we look at all of the different types of climatic conditions that we have in the European Union, Ireland has a special climatic position I think but it means that that special climatic position gives it an advantage when competing against Spanish solar, German solar such that there is sun in Germany or wind in other parts of Europe. So the peaks of supply or production in the Irish case will be different from the peaks of production in other areas and having that interconnection with other countries will allow for exports of electricity from Ireland and when there is a deficit to import electricity when necessary. We also would move away from the conception of being dependent on a single gas supply system through to the oil in Scotland. So we would like to see a much higher level of interconnection. Firstly starting with trade between electricity markets which would allow for thermal power optimisation particularly natural gas and would make the natural gas market equally much more competitive so you could import natural gas to compete with the natural gas that you already have in this country which comes through a gas interconnector which could import it in the form of prices, electricity prices from thermal power generated elsewhere. So if the gas price is lower say in Germany you could import that electricity to Ireland and have it compete with gas which is burnt in this country. We have looked at different grid designs in the European context and we have noted that grids which are designed rather than left to the market are over time much more competitive of much greater socioeconomic value to all of the member states involved than simply allowing for a grid that grows like topsy. So we are looking in the context particularly of the northern seas which are the Baltic, the North Sea, the Irish Sea and the area around Ireland at grid designs, how we can remove development barriers and think also about how we can best remunerate those who will build grids for the future and perhaps we should move from a merchant based system to a regulated asset based system. We should also think in terms of scale what is the effect of scale on bringing down unit costs if we were to go down this route. So far as I think I saw a press release from the Green Party this morning which I think must have had your hand behind it, I think you were bemoaning the thought that Ireland hadn't been at the table when the negotiations were taking place in Brussels. Indeed you had and you were deeply involved but we need I think also to thank and to think, thank the Irish government for having done what it has done so far but also think for the future. What could you do more? What is it that Ireland could bring to the table on a discussion about interconnecting systems over the long term? One of the softer values that I think that you could certainly bring to the table is any initiative which is led by Ireland is generally accepted by everybody else because we don't think the others. That is that Ireland has any hidden agenda generally speaking so you at least bring your good offices to the debate and that can be very helpful in and of itself. But thinking for the future I think there are things that would be of tremendous value for Ireland, exporting electricity when you have a surplus, importing cheaper electricity when you need it. Also there are management issues of the grid, there are things which speak to the relative forgotten the word in English. Advantages that Ireland has such as software development, systems management, SCADA and such like. So there are other elements of the economic equation which you should think about when you are talking about networks which Ireland could particularly take part in. We should also think about what is the role of wind both onshore and offshore, we should think about whether there should be a scope for much greater cost compression in the wind sector. Particularly in standardisation there are at moment tremendous number of different wind turbines and wind components on the market. They all address the same issue which is try to make something go round in the wind but they all have tremendously different technical attributes. And to standardise some of those technical attributes to make systems much more simpler and to have a plug and play approach to electricity generation particularly for wind power would bring down its costs tremendously. In the United Kingdom they are thinking of reducing costs by 40% between now and 2020. If that's done in the European concept it would be much easier to achieve that for all European wind farm manufacturers and operators. So when we look at grids for renewables expansion should we think about having the renewables first and then the grids? Or should we think about having the grids and then the renewables? That's a very important timing issue. Until now most people have put this in the sequence that we should first develop the renewables and then develop the grids. The suggestion that we would make is to change it round. We should first put in place grids for trading of the existing infrastructure that we already have, existing generation facilities that we already have and then develop the renewables that can take advantage of that grid at a later time. But you do if you go along that route have to manage competing interests, you have to make anticipatory investments and you have to think about what it is that you're going to do in common and what you're going to do apart. That political process is not started at the European Union level. There is an initiative called the Northern Seas Offshore Grid Initiative and it's COGI, but it's a very technical level initiative dealing with specific technical issues for regulation. What we really need though is a political initiative which takes in the whole of the North Seas area and which involves everybody from the start and has a political flavour to it and I think that's where Ireland could play a significant role. Grid designs, they're much cheaper if you think about them in anticipation over time than if you just allow them to be built and then try and fix them later. I think the message there is that we need to have some sort of global perspective of what we're going to do in the Northern Seas in order for everybody to benefit and to take these concepts and apply it to the interconnected region of the Northern Seas. You'll see that if you have a coordinated development versus a business as usual approach you have far fewer cables in the sea which means far fewer costs and you have much simpler management and O&M costs over the long term. We would like to see a development more like this than like that. It has upfront additional costs but it has over time huge savings in comparison to a business as usual scenario and such a coordinated development would allow for Ireland to be fully integrated into the continental energy market irrespective of what political circumstances may occur between now and its achievement. It's an important thing that Ireland has to consider. It's beyond my pay grade to go any further than that but I put it to you that it's important for Ireland to think about what happens in the future in the long term in its electricity sector now rather than waiting three or four years. We need a greater level of political framework particularly at the European Union level or at the regional level. We need something, an area of discussion politically led where these issues can be dealt with and the expected benefits reaped and again I think Ireland has a strong claim to take leadership in that area. Lastly what we need to do in order to achieve a regionally integrated energy system in the northern seas is close all the different legal horizons, all the different bits of law and regulation and jurisdiction and other issues that come into play. Do this in such a way that project developers have the fewest risks, the fewest problems in delivering a robust electricity network and grid for a decarbonised carbon neutral Europe that we have in view for 2030. I think that is something that is a great challenge to all of us and I hope that having come to Dublin I'll at least get an echo on some of these points. Thank you very much.