Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I can tell Deputy Byrne more about it. We have an organisation with primary responsibility for the creation of a reliable electricity grid and, at the same time, a responsibility for ensuring that we have uninterrupted power in future. The people in EirGrid change their minds on a regular basis and equivocate about the costs and the best methods. Then, they become vague about everything else they are asked and other questions and so on. We are going nowhere. I predict that within ten years we will have a situation whereby there will be blackouts in this country. The people in EirGrid have responsibility for that. Obviously, by then they will have moved on.

I am sorry to be harsh, Chairman, but no words of mine can adequately describe the annoyance of people in my constituency and other constituencies throughout the country who have had foisted upon them a belief that EirGrid was in control, that those responsible knew what they were talking about and that we were going to proceed in a particular fashion. The people in EirGrid have not even thought about it yet. If they had, they would have thought more carefully before they made their decisions.