Eamon Ryan can only give qualified assurances of no power outages this winter

Green Party leader and environment minister Eamon Ryan says that "many older plants are not performing as efficiently as a new plant would". Picture: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie

Environment minister Eamon Ryan says he is "increasingly confident" that Ireland will avoid power outages this winter, but "we never know".

Mr Ryan was asked by Sinn Féin's Darren O'Rourke for assurances that the country will not face blackouts in the winter as demand for electricity ramps up.