Terry Brennan (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the County Monaghan anti-pylon committee, which has previously been before the committee. I also acknowledge the presence of two former colleagues on the Border Regional Authority, Councillor Hugh McElvaney and Councillor Noel Keelan. Those people have been fighting this case for seven years. I admire them for their tenacity. They should keep it up. I will address another issue of concern in a different meeting today which I have been fighting for almost eight years but I have not got to the bottom of yet. I encourage the group and I agree wholeheartedly with what has been said. People are angry, and rightly so, about the lack of consultation. There is nothing worse than being told what is going to happen without any consultation. As far as I am concerned, open engagement in any project, whether it relates to road infrastructure or any other issue, is paramount.

It is incomprehensible that Ms Marron got no reply from EirGrid. It is definitely not good enough that EirGrid totally ignored communication from the group. I took up the interconnector issue last week. I explained the situation to Ms Marron prior to the meeting. We have existing interconnectors between Northern Ireland and Scotland and between Dublin and Holyhead in Wales. Ms Marron corrected me on the matter. I am not sure whether there is an interconnector between Rosslare and Fishguard, but there is a proposal to have an interconnector between Ireland and France. The main reason for interconnectors is for countries to help each other at times of maximum demand for electricity in one country and for us to reciprocate with Northern Ireland and England. I asked about the size and length of each interconnector but I did not get a satisfactory answer. Some of my colleagues are still present. We have capacity of 400 kV between Scotland and Northern Ireland and a similar interconnector of 500 MW capacity between Ireland and Wales. The capacity of the proposed interconnector with France is 700 MW.

I am not convinced that we need a 1,500 MW interconnector between Northern Ireland and the South. I do not understand why we need an interconnector twice the size and, in some instances, three times the size of existing ones. I need to be convinced that the interconnector between North and South cannot be the same size as those between Northern Ireland and Scotland or Ireland and Wales. I agree with Deputy Smith that we got assurance last week that an underground solution for the North-South interconnector was feasible and would be available. That was the message I got. I am not convinced that we need two in parallel, which Mr. Hillis mentioned to me outside. In my experience, two overhead lines in parallel would be used in order that if one breaks down, it is possible to transfer to the other. We do not have them between here and Wales, underground, or between the North and Scotland, nor is this proposed for the future. Why is it necessary with Northern Ireland? A 400 MW supply to Northern Ireland will suffice, mainly in times of maximum demand in either country.

I support the call for an independent review that does not involve EirGrid or the State at all. The question of the AC overheads and of the need for DC given their length and size is an issue. If DC is run for 50 miles, it has to be converted to AC, and it is expensive to build stations to do that. However, if that is what the people want, it is the answer, and I think it is.