Mr. Patrick Swords:

In our opening statement we provided details on the projects of common interest, which are a series of massive projects interlinking Ireland with its European neighbours, including not only the UK but France. There was a failure under the public participation conducted on this in 2012 to provide any information other than the names of the projects. We requested the information from the Commission's Director-General for Energy, Mr. Philip Lowe, and the secretary general of the European Commission, Ms Catherine Day, and then took the matter to the Ombudsman, following which copies of the project questionnaires were released to us.

There is much concern about Grid Link, which is the massive pylon project running from Cork through Waterford and up the Wexford coast in some of the most beautiful areas of Ireland. These are obvious concerns. When we consider the information on the project questionnaire for Grid Link, it is clear it is part of an overall process to connect to France and Great Britain, and that is why it is put in the project as a common interest. It is admitted that if €500 million is spent on building Grid Link, it would reduce generation costs in Ireland by €11 million per annum because of more efficient power station operation. In other words the money is spent to reduce costs by €11 million per annum. If interconnection is facilitated to Great Britain or France, the saving could go to €40 million or €110 million, but an interconnector to the United Kingdom would cost an extra €700 million or €800 million, and one to France would cost even more. We would then be at a figure of approximately €1.5 billion.

It is stated that the investment is planned primarily to facilitate the integration of 1,283 MW of wind generation in the south of the country. That is what Grid Link is about. However, they also point out that the connection of such capacity can only be facilitated if further interconnection is installed to provide access for this generation to the British and continental European markets. We know already that the grid is operating in an unstable manner and we are dumping wind but Grid Link is connected to the building of interconnectors. If interconnectors are not built, there is no reason for Grid Link other than to save €11 million per annum from inefficient power station operation. There is much inaccurate information in the public domain and the committee is welcome to have this information.