Mr. John O'Connor:

Remuneration for the job is not a primary consideration. It certainly did not come into my mind immediately when I was asked. It is not true to say the Minister asked me because of my experience in planning. I think I tried to explain that earlier. In fact, it was way down the list in terms of the discussion I had with the Minister. I think his main point was that I had a lot of experience in terms of serving on State boards, in managing State bodies and so forth and that this was a very important company which needed direction, leadership, experience and so forth that he felt I could offer. Planning was certainly not a primary issue.

Planning was certainly not a primary issue in the discussions on the role with the Minister, but obviously planning was mentioned in terms of Grid25, but it was not the reason he gave for asking me to take the job. Some Deputies mentioned the legacy issues in planning. As I said earlier, mistakes were made and bad planning decisions were made, but they were certainly not all made by An Bord Pleanála. Towards the end of my term, I undertook a public review of the ABP decisions, which were only a minority of all planning decisions, and accepted responsibility on the part of An Bord Pleanála for some of the decisions that were made. Most of the planning decisions that we are discussing were made by the local authorities and were never appealed to An Bord Pleanála.

Members made the point about the lack of information in the consultation process. I have heard what has been said and it is a repetition of what others have said. I will take those points on board.

The question of whether solid ducting should have been laid along the motorway during the construction period was raised. In an ideal world, all the issues could be brought together. The question has been raised as to whether the N25 and M9 motorways re suitable as routes for the grid. That has been raised in the consultation process and will have to be looked at and answered as well.

In response to Deputy Heydon, I reiterate that Grid25 energy is not being generated for export. I was referring to the projects that are around for the export of wind energy to Britain. I realise that in the longer term, there are prospects of connections to France and so on and that the south east would be the pivotal point at which it would have to come in. There has been some misunderstanding. I did not say that it had nothing to do with export, but long-term it may be tied up with the connection to France, but it has nothing to do with the current controversial proposals on the power generated by major wind farms in the midlands being exported to Britain. That is a separate project altogether.

I think the issue of Greenstar has been dealt with. The decisions were made in good faith on the basis of the need for waste facilities at the time. I have no figurers about cost as I did not bring that information.