John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I agree that different groups are at a different stage, but we felt that this was important at this stage of the process. Of course this is a long process. There will be other meetings, but we felt that in advance of meeting representatives from EirGrid, we needed to hear about the stages that the different groups are at in different areas of the country. This will not be concluded at this hearing, and there will be many future hearings. We have already spoken about an umbrella group for all of the groups that are emerging, and I am sure their views will be heard here at some stage as well. This committee is a facility that would not be possible in the Chamber, so we want to put that at the disposal of groups like those before us today, in order to give you a voice. We have to go into discussions in our considerations of this and we must work within the terms of reference ourselves.

I would feel that this is democracy in action. There is a long process that we have to through and there will be other hearings.