Mr. Fintan Slye:

The underground routes were published and made available but there was not a specific consultation on an underground route. The Deputy is right. However, a specific underground route was examined and published. Members who have looked at the back of the PB Power report will see an Ordnance Survey map that sets out the route corridor.

The next question was on regional gain on which I will make two points. First, the existence of a high-voltage AC transmission line such as this one affords opportunities to interconnect into it, even without the station being there initially, and a great example of that is Apple in Athenry. It is not connecting in to an existing station. We are building a new transmission station for it, tapping in to an existing high-voltage transmission line. The existence of that corridor, therefore, provides access to high quality, high-voltage electricity that will allow for developments into the future. We see that with Apple, and we are seeing it more frequently with other companies that are looking to develop and tap in to an existing line.

I would point out also that we have in place a proposal on community gain that includes both a community fund for the wider community and also a proximity allowance payable to householders in recognition of the fact that transmission infrastructure has a greater impact on those immediately adjacent to it in terms of their visual amenity.

The Deputy raised the issue of bottlenecks in the current flow of the existing line, power capacity in Northern Ireland and projections for security supply in Northern Ireland. If I might, I will group those three issues in my answer. Every year we review the security of supply on the entire island.

We look at it in Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and on the island as a whole. It is updated every year based on best projections for economic growth and electricity demand growth resulting from that. The document, called the Generation Capacity Statement, is published every year, and it is approved by the regulators North and South before it is published. That document clearly articulates the security supply issue that is emerging in Northern Ireland in 2020 as security of supply margins dip below what is acceptable. That is due in part to the impending closure of some of the power stations in Northern Ireland.

For those who are not aware, two of the power stations in Northern Ireland use coal and there are European directives around the continued use of those power stations. A number of power stations closures are imminent in Northern Ireland and they are set out in our report. However, the security supply margin dips below what is acceptable from the end of this decade onwards.