Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Indeed. Business people try to get first-mover advantage and make these decisions and so on. Unfortunately, I believe the Deputy is right. It has led to unnecessary concerns in some communities because the proposition that Deputy Marcella Corcoran Kennedy's county will have wind turbines in every second field is not going to happen in her lifetime or mine. I agree that communities have concerns, some of which are not justified because they will not be included and so on.

As for an interconnector with France, as the Deputy now is aware there is an interconnector between Wales and north Dublin. The Government was never willing to have a situation in which merchant developers would throw their own cables across the Irish Sea to plug into the British grid. That would not be acceptable as it must be regulated properly and it is a matter for the two Governments to agree how that would be done. On whether there will be an interconnector with France in the future, all I can say about that is the entire thrust of European policy is to have a single integrated market in energy, greater integration, greater interconnection and so on. The agency charged with future planning for the State of course is engaged in research on something like that but it will not appear on the horizon before Deputy Cowen's date of 23 May or anything like that. It is a matter for the future.

I believe I know what the Deputy is getting at when she referred to flexible plants and so on. She is correct in that technology keeps changing and developing all the time. It is true that fossil fuels are needed at present in respect of backup and flexible plants will come into their own. For reasons of which Deputy Corcoran Kennedy is aware, it is an extremely complex issue that is primarily but not solely an issue with the regulator. The regulator, EirGrid and so on are looking at the interests she has on behalf of her constituents in this regard. I am not sure where it will go in the future but she is correct as the kind of flexibility that would be provided is the kind of thing that is needed.

Finally, I have heard the proposals she mentioned about the community somehow buying into the adventure and so on. It is a particularly interesting proposal. While I do not know of this happening on any kind of broad mass scale, in small projects such as that to which we referred earlier in Templederry, in the Vice Chairman's native county, on a local basis the local farmers were signed up and essentially are shareholders. Is that a fair description of that project? Theoretically, there is no reason similar models cannot be developed in the future. However, it is difficult. For example, members should note the announcement by Bord na Móna about its own green energy hub.

There are a number of members here who would have some experience of it but my understanding is that when Bord na Móna started to hold town hall meetings and explain what it was about, it got a very high measure of approval, support and understanding. Perhaps that shows us the way. I know Bord na Móna has a uniquely acceptable brand to the local community in the midlands for all the reasons we know. I accept the reality that in respect of some people, for whatever reason, there is nothing I can say that would ever bring them on board. As somebody wrote in a letter to The Irish Times, if we had not built the railways, we certainly would not be able to build them now. Building big infrastructure is a problem and there is no point in pretending otherwise.