Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I was very happy to hear Mr. O'Rourke mention the Ardnacrusha visitor centre.

It is just a few kilometres upriver from my home. I have been to the centre, which is fantastic, and I congratulate the ESB on embracing its own industrial heritage. Indeed the ESB was born in Ardnacrusha and it is something of which people in Limerick and Clare are very proud. I know Mr. O'Rourke's father was at the microgenerator on the river in Monaghan. My family was involved in the construction of Ardnacrusha and it is something of which we are quite proud. At the time, it was a vast engineering project. One fifth of the national budget was spent on building Ardnacrusha, which was the first of its kind in the world. Indeed many large-scale hydro projects around the world emulated what was done in Ardnacrusha.

I do not think it is a project we would do now, partly because of the cost but also because of the environmental impact of it. It is true to say that it did have a huge environmental impact in Limerick and Clare and I believe it continues to do so. I know the ESB operated it with the best intentions and has all the right safeguards in place but essentially we are talking about a major man-made construction on a river whose operation impacts, in terms of its health, on the local environment. The issue of flooding, which we are very used to in Limerick, also arises. By and large, the ESB does manage that well.

Will Mr. O'Rourke comment on the balancing of the ESB's commercial imperative to generate renewable electricity, as hydro power is, and its environmental responsibility locally and globally? I would like the ESB to embrace a review of that responsibility as well, not just with respect to Ardnacrusha but more generally across the work of the ESB nationally and internationally.