To ask the Minister for the Economy for his assessment of the importance of European Union funding on the construction of a second power station at Islandmagee.

The proposal to develop a compressed air energy storage project at Islandmagee is a power storage facility rather than a power station. The storage project is a private sector, developer-led investment. As a designated EU Project of Common Interest (PCI) it is currently accessing Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) grant funding for a range of pre-construction activities. CEF is administered centrally by the European Commission, not through an allocation to each Member State, and the Commission carries out the evaluation and selection of submitted proposals.

The CEF budget does not typically extend to funding construction works associated with PCIs. As the project develops it will continue to be a matter for the project promoters to consider construction funding requirements and options.