Mr. Fintan Slye:

The Senator is absolutely right. We are seeing more of a need to do this as growth in demand is predominantly on the east coast and centred in Dublin. There is increased generation capacity, largely from wind power, which tends to be generated on the west, north-west and south-west coasts. This did happen in the past, with generation stations being sited in Dublin and recently in Cork. The most recent generator was built in Waterford city, at the site of the original Great Island station. The ESB built the Moneypoint power plant in the early 1980s and, although it sited the station on the Shannon Estuary to facilitate the importation of coal, it built two 400 kV lines to Dublin which was the demand centre at the time. The plant at Moneypoint feeds demand almost directly in north and south Dublin for the very reasons the Senator has articulated.