Mr. Fintan Slye:

Yes. Senator Kelly posed number of questions, the first of which concerned independent analysis for Grid West and Grid Link, in terms of the undergrounding option. As I said earlier, we need to reflect upon what is coming back from this committee and on the debate in the Dáil last night. We also need to reflect on the commitments the Minister gave in terms of feedback in the context of how we can improve our consultation process and how to address the need for detailed information on the underground option. This information was prepared by us and the independent commission on the North-South interconnector. We need to look at how best we can deal with that information for the other two projects. I take the message from this meeting and contributions of members that we need to do that. We do it in a way that provides assurances as to its objectivity, balance and fairness. I accept we need to reflect on this.

A question was asked referring to my earlier answer on a question on the difference between AC and DC and the comments I made about it not being possible to underground long lengths of AC transmission lines. The question asked concerned whether that response could be verified externally. This was the only conclusion of the independent expert panel report commissioned by the Government. That report concluded it was not feasible to do the lengths envisaged in the North-South interconnector as an underground AC line. That is clearly, emphatically and unambiguously stated in the independent expert commission report. Therefore, the issue has been reviewed and externally verified.

With regard to the interrelationship between Grid25 and renewable energy, in particular wind energy, I stated earlier that none of the projects in the Grid25 programme are connected with or have anything to do with the wind export projects, which are centred largely around the midlands.

Those projects are designed to fall under the intergovernmental agreement currently being discussed between the Government and the Government in the United Kingdom. However, as I outlined in my presentation at the start, GRID25 does facilitate the harnessing of renewable energy for domestic purposes. The example was correctly quoted of the Grid West project. While Grid West serves to reinforce the network around the west and in County Mayo, a key part of it is to harness the renewable resources and the wind farms along the western seaboard in Mayo that are planned and under development. The comments on that were correct. This renewable energy will serve domestic needs to meet our 2020 target of having 40% of electricity generated from renewable resources. I reiterate that it is completely separate from the renewable export projects, which are being developed to serve and export to the United Kingdom market under an intergovernmental agreement.

There was a question around balanced regional development. We take seriously our obligations to ensure there is a grid in place throughout the country. Part of the commitment is to facilitate balanced regional development such that the infrastructure is in place to allow companies to invest, grow and provide jobs. Given the fragile recovery we are in at the moment, we take that particularly seriously and we are particularly mindful of it. In advance of the projects going out we engaged with many communities and, in particular, county councils. There was a major desire among those constituencies to have infrastructure brought to areas which had in the past perhaps less than adequate infrastructure. Part of the purpose of GRID25 is to address that need. If a firm is investing in a particular area there are several factors, including access to water and labour, which go in to a siting decision. Another factor near the top of the list is always the quality of secure affordable energy. However, there are other factors which affect any decision.

There was the question about the statement by the chairman designate at this committee yesterday on living close to a pylon. My understanding is that Mr. O'Connor indicated that he would not like to live within 50 m of a pylon. Currently, we keep the pylons 50 m away from people's houses. That is part of how we seek to route transmission lines. When we are going over-ground we seek to route them and keep them-----