Significant amounts of Generation in the pipeline

Eirgrid have announced that they are upgrading their transmission network to facilitate future increases in power generation.  Total planned generation will be 15,000MW by 2023 - three times that of peak winter demand. In otherwords, this is generation that is simply not required.

There is no mention of the cost or environmental impact of all this infrastructure. There is mention that in a period of volatile energy costs renewable energy sources can also contribute to cost competitiveness by reducing dependence on imported fossil fuels but as Irish Energy Blog has shown fossil fuel prices can come down in real life with investment in subsidized renewables preventing these savings from been passed on to the consumer :

Gas Prices Hit Six Year Low but still Electricity Bills rise

There is also the question of whether An Bord Pleanala (or the local planning authority) should carry out a cumulative assessment of this entire project, which includes new transmission and new generation, as it certainly looks like there will be significant environmental impacts.