Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the groups for attending and for their presentations. As Deputy Coffey said, it is important that everybody should have their say. Until recently, this issue only affected counties Meath, Cavan and Monaghan. I am from County Meath and, although I am only recently elected, it was an issue my father worked out but it is suddenly being put into the public sphere more. The greatest barrier to expansion of the national grid is public acceptance and it is clear from the groups' presentation, protests and public meetings that we do not have that acceptance. This has stemmed from EirGrid's lack of public consultation. Anybody who engaged with the company over recent years could have guessed what would be said today and I am disappointed because I had hoped there would be a change in approach with the newer groups but, unfortunately, the process is the same as it was six years ago. I do not like to hear people saying that public representation is failing them. Significant work has gone into this over the past six years and nothing has been built overhead or overground for the Meath to Tyrone interconnector but, unfortunately, it is costing the State €30 million a year for 140 km.

Nothing has gone overhead or overground in the Meath to Tyrone interconnector, but unfortunately it is costing the State €30 million in a year and that is for 140 km. We are obviously looking at a larger grid which is 800 km, so it needs to be addressed sooner rather than later. Obviously representatives of EirGrid will appear before the committee in two weeks and we will be expecting answers. I hope the questions will be put to them before they come in so that we can have answers for them.

I do not have any questions because I believe the witnesses have answered them. An independent cost analysis needs to be done. My local group, NEPP, has stated that it is in the public domain: it costs €2.3 million per kilometre to go overhead and €2 million underground. As I understand that does not include converter stations, this needs to be investigated and a cost analysis completed. I am not qualified comment on health issues, but the committee can investigate how much it is costing the taxpayer. EirGrid has disagreed with the much of what the commission has stated but conveniently it has agreed that the costing is three times the amount whereas before it was 20 or 15 times. We need to find out once and for all how much it will cost to go underground.