Mr. Garrett Blaney:

I fully agree that it is really important to try to put downward pressure on prices. The metric for us to follow is the one which measures improvements in our competitiveness as an economy. Costs are increasing in numerous different areas right across the European Union and we want to ensure Ireland is low cost, relative to our peers, by keeping our costs as low as we can and the core reason for building the North-South interconnector at the lowest cost is to minimise the extra pressure on the bills to the consumer. It is clear that undergrounding adds a significant, measurable increase to the consumer's bill.

The Deputy is right that consumers are struggling already trying to pay their bills. We want to do what we can to try to protect-----