Luke Flanagan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank them for their presentation. I have quite a few questions.

How much extra does pay as you go cost the consumer? Does it cost more per unit of electricity? Is there interest to pay on what one is paying back? Also, they make it sound a good deal more rosy than it is in that if consumers cannot pay their bills, they can go on pay as you go and will not be cut off. That creates the following dire scenario. If a child is unfortunate enough to live in a home where the parents are not organised enough for whatever reason or are not good with money, what solace will it be to that child as he or she sits in the dark and in the cold that mammy and daddy have pay as you go. There were many scenarios in my youth where I did not know whether the lights would have been on and it would not have been reassuring to know that there was pay-as-you-go installed.

At this stage, the three-to-one cost ratio in the underground-overground power lines argument is bordering on farce. How can anyone have figures on this until he or she first asks the people whether they want the power lines to go underground or overground? I said this last week at this committee but it seems it must be repeated because people keep missing the point. One cannot have a ratio of overground to underground unless one knows what sort of terrain one is going through. The ratio that we are getting appears to be the result of where they already decided we are going overground and chose a route on that basis and that it had better be fairly solid terrain on which to put the pylons, but if they decided first that they were putting it underground they would choose a different route. This ratio is completely irrelevant.

They estimate a 3% increase in electricity prices if the power lines go underground. How did they arrive at this cost increase? Also, there was mention of increased costs afterwards if the power lines go underground. What about the decreases in costs from the danger of overhead lines being blown down? We are told climate change is happening before our eyes and there will be more unpredictable weather. Surely, they should be concluding that putting the power lines overground might involve more long-term costs.

Has the CER any say over the power that will be produced in the midlands, and if not, why?