Mr. Cian Moloney:

We are not here purporting to be experts in this area. We are catching up as fast as we can and educating ourselves. Expertise should be sought in regard to the matter and it should be up to date, independent and objective. EirGrid is funding the project to the tune of more than €3 billion and promoting its own agenda in regard to it. The other side of the coin should be sought.

With regard to the full cost-benefit analysis of undergrounding along established infrastructure routes, when I specifically asked for a cost-benefit analysis of the routes being proposed, involving no undergrounding or use of existing infrastructural routes, I was told they were not yet costed. Regarding the proposed routes between Great Island and Dunstown, outside Kilcullen, County Kildare, I was specifically told no cost estimates had been made. I find it remarkable that the routes suggested as viable were not costed. It is not that the individual to whom I was speaking was not aware of the costings. I specifically asked him and he was definite that the costings had not been done. If they had not been done on the overground routes that are being proposed, one will certainly not get costings from them-----