Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the delegations to the committee. I am a Deputy for County Meath, which has been dealing with this issue for the past six or seven years. I accept there is a need for structural improvements within the grid and that there is a need for an an-Ireland energy market. However, no project can proceed in this State against the will of the people. This needs to be the basis on which we discuss all of the issues arising.

One of the major concerns is costs.

For every year the process is not put underground, it costs the taxpayer €30 million. Over the past six to seven years, that is €210 million which current Government policy has cost the taxpayer. One can also consider how EirGrid treated the An Bord Pleanála application on the previous occasion, when the application collapsed because information was not correct and there was a cost to the State in that regard. There was no accountability. Any planning permission applicant would have had to pay the majority of the amount of money for its engagement with An Bord Pleanála while the taxpayer had to foot the bill for the mistakes of EirGrid in that regard.

The point was made that energy needs to be left behind. In Meath we would not have the necessary energy for the likes of Intel, but the North-South interconnector will not leave any access to energy behind for the whole of county Meath. Until the end point, no community will be able to access the necessary energy to develop industry. EirGrid has indicated that if Government policy changes, it will underground the cables. EirGrid is not an independent fiefdom and it operates according to the law. If that law changes, as this Oireachtas can decide, EirGrid will have to proceed along that course.

One of the key elements the campaign in Meath has carried out very successfully is managing to get 90% of landowners to refuse to give EirGrid access, and that level of community unity has been one of the key factors of that campaign. Has there been an estimate of the catchment of people being affected by these proposed lines? Mr. Bannigan indicated he had experienced box-ticking exercises, and I would hate for this to become another one. A Deputy who is not here at the moment mentioned that this is the start of the process, but this is not the beginning and is closer to the end for many communities which have worked for six or seven years on the issue. Would it be possible for the committee to make the submission, as has been requested, and carry a motion that the committee seeks these lines to be underground? I would also like the committee to call on the Government to create legislation for the process to be undergrounded. My office is preparing legislation for undergrounding and we hope to have that published in the new year. I would like some of the community organisations to help my office in that regard.