Mr. Mark Griffin:

I can assure the Deputy that we do not take our information or direction entirely from EirGrid. The Deputy commented about a former Secretary General being chair of EirGrid. The said man came through a process utterly independent of the Department, undertaken by the Public Appointments Service, strictly in accordance with the state aid guidelines and the name presented to the Minister.

Any factual information we take, we always critique it ourselves. It is absolutely appropriate to speak to all our State agencies, whether it is EirGrid, the ESB, An Post or whoever else, to source information from time to time for particular processes.

On the ALEGrO interconnector, to the best of my recollection, when the 2018 international expert study review was being undertaken, it looked at a range of high-voltage direct-current, HVDC, underground cable projects and how they operated. I stand to be corrected but I believe the ALEGrO one was considered. I will double-check that for the Deputy.