Minister Dermot Ahern has said there is enough capacity in our electricity network to avoid blackouts over the next six months. Some sources in the industry had been warning of outages due to lack of capacity.
Mr Ahern said this morning that ensuring security of supply across Europe would be one of the priorities of the Irish presidency. He said from a domestic standpoint he would soon be bringing plans to cabinet for an east-west electricity interconnector.
However he denied that our power situation was critical. Ireland, he said, was well served with capacity.
The Minister, who also has responsibility for communications, said a key goal of the Irish presidency would also be the regulation of satellite broadcasters with a view to having the companies come under the jurisdiction of countries into which they provide services.
He said smaller countries like Ireland, Sweden, Belgium and Austria were strongly in favour of more regulation although he accepted that some larger states might have a different stance.
A review of the relevant EU Directive will take place during a ministerial conference here in early March
