asked the Minister for Industry, Commerce and Energy if he has available to him an estimate, in current money terms, of the cost of building a nuclear power generating station of the capacity proposed for the Carnsore site.

As the Deputy is no doubt aware, the ESB have only recently been authorised to proceed with completion of the preparatory process of bringing the nuclear project to the stage where complete draft specifications and estimates of costs will be available. Until this stage has been reached it will not be possible for the ESB to furnish to me an estimate of the cost of building such a station.

Has the Minister not got some kind of estimate in the Department, even to the nearest £100 million?

Let him off with the nearest £10 million?

I have not got a definitive estimate in current cost terms and I do not think it would be possible for the Department or the ESB to give that with any reasonable degree of accuracy until, for example, it has been decided which type of reactor will be used in the station, because I presume the costs of reactors of different kinds vary considerably.

Has not a planning application been made in respect of the power station, and surely that application must have told the county councils in round terms——

As the Deputy probably knows, the figure estimated by the ESB in 1973, when the then Government approved of this proposal, was £126 million. For a slightly larger, 650 megawatt station, the ESB estimate was £350 million in 1977 terms. I gave an estimate towards the end of last year: in terms of costs at that time—I was given this figure as indicative rather than definitive—it was £400 million. It is probably a bit more now.

17.