Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 18 February 2014
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht
Electricity Generation and Export: Discussion
5:35 pm
Mr. John Reilly:
We were not prescriptive in any way about what should or should not be included. We wanted to allow community and interest groups and individuals to have a say and, therefore, we did not put out any proposals. As part of the next stage we will give consideration to all these bits and pieces and we will go back to the local communities with further engagement. This relates to our domestic projects. The possibility of community involvement in larger projects may be something that will come about as part of an export project, if that were to happen.
Anyway, we have not got to that stage in Ireland with the development, despite the fact that we are installing approximately 2.5 GW on the island of Ireland. This is being done over a 12- to 14-year period. If we accelerate an element of this in the coming years we could possibly deliver the supply chain demand that could result in manufacturing coming to Ireland. Certainly, it is something that those of us in Bord na Móna are keen to work towards as best we can to ensure that such supply chain demand might come about.