Ms Deborah Meghan:

Across the various different projects, the mapping constraints look at a range of environmental factors such as designated special protection areas, high ground, large urban centres and so on. There is a variation in the constraints when one looks at the different county development plans across the various projects. We take on board all the feedback from those county development plans and input it into each of the projects. As I said, there is perhaps a little consistency between some of the county development plans and how they apportion different landscape types, visual amenities and so on.

We take all of those data on board and input them into our geographic information system, which is a multi-layered system that analyses all the different constraints. These would include primary constraints such as, for instance, the Comeragh Mountains, Wicklow National Park, the Blackstairs Mountains, towns, special protection areas and so on. Then we look at all the other layers of constraint below the primary. In the case of the Grid Link project, we are talking about a data indexing system that has nearly 120 different layers of information and data that are inputted into the process of evaluating and identifying potential corridors to route power lines. It is an open and transparent system. All of the information on constraints mapping - where it comes from and how it is developed - are available in the stage one report. In addition, the constraints reports that were published for both projects sought feedback and input as to how we should evaluate those constraints. We also sought input, as part of the stage one report, on how we might evaluate the corridors. It is an ongoing process and there is a huge amount of work and information available on it.