Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I welcome the representatives from EirGrid. I have sat through these meetings from the very start and from the day that the chairman designate of EirGrid was before the committee. I asked him if he would like to live beside a pylon himself. He said "No." Over the years the committee has heard that we were a growing economy, which we have at the moment, thank God, and that a growing economy would require this project on a regional basis.

The committee was told that under no circumstances could there be any option other than lattice structures. We heard from EirGrid representatives that in the west there would be no option other than lattice structures. I am not from either of those regions. I am from a region where we have these structures crossing the mid-west from Loop Head, right through the centre of County Clare, up into Tipperary and down into Limerick. I was always interested in the project and whether, in the event there was an underground option for new development, there would also be an underground option for existing networks.

This process appears to lack any degree of credibility. There is zero credibility. We are back in a situation now where the economy is growing. The IDA tells us that one of its fundamental requirements is a need for energy in the regions and I imagine that includes the south east and the west. All of a sudden the south east and the west are stalled or scrapped, depending on how one looks at it, but not the north east. The north east will not benefit from this. The committee learned from a meeting with representatives from EirGrid that the beneficiary of this project will be Northern Ireland. We find ourselves in a situation where areas that will be worst affected will not benefit at all.

We are also being told that there is a possibility of laying a cable, presumably in the seabed to France with all the different technologies and voltages between the French and the Irish sides, while at the same time every excuse is put in the way of linking this jurisdiction with the Northern jurisdiction, ultimately to benefit the Northern economy. I do not have a difficulty with that but there is a difficulty with the double standard which emerged a long time ago when this committee was told one could have any option in the south east and west as long as it was a lattice structure. That has now changed but it has not changed for the north east. I do not represent that area but I look at fairness and impartiality and it would seem that if we are going to have a growing economy on the entire island and if there are deficits in energy supply, there would be a universal approach on an all island basis but that is not what is happening. It seems to be piecemeal and ad hoc and we are at a stage now where we are nearly making it up as we go along.

As a Member of the Oireachtas I have zero confidence in this system at the moment. If I were representing an area that was under the microscope for this, I could not tell people I had any confidence in this as it is being chopped and changed. Two or three years ago the committee was told that this was the only option for the south east. Now that is gone and there are many options for the south east. It can be solved regionally and there is a possible solution for the west but we are still being told there is no solution for the north east other than the one we are going to plough ahead with. At the same time there is the possibility of a cable to France at God only knows how much cost and I presume it is not going to be lattice structures across the Celtic Sea or the Bay of Biscay.

I have a very straightforward question. Could we stop the pretence that things cannot change and everything must be as it was three years ago? Everything is not as it was three years ago and there have been changes. The economy is growing and there is much more demand for electricity, as there will be in future. It seems there is a complete lack of credibility from the organisational perspective in how this has been designed and sold.

I said last week with regard to another organisation that a hames has been made of this from start to finish. We are now in a position where this is happening in one region in the country. I do not represent it and know nothing about it but if I was from there, I would be very sore. There is an obligation, as this body is owned by the taxpayers, to listen to people. That has not been done at all for the past number of years. The chairman-designate said at the time that he would not like to live beside one of these structures and his honesty was refreshing, although it nearly cost him his position. If he would not like to live beside one of these, why should somebody in Cavan, Monaghan or Meath, as their communities will not benefit in any case? The beneficiaries would be communities in Northern Ireland with an energy shortage. Ironically, at the last meeting we were told the cable would go underground when it crosses the Border.

We have been at this a long time and we are going around in a circle. As we have gone on the merry-go-round, two regions, namely, the west and the south east, have fallen off. To inject any degree of credibility into what is being done, EirGrid should pull the handbrake and admit this has been a public relations farce from start to finish. It should explain how it was to consult with people and produce nice documents but although it got 38,000 submissions, it seems it did not listen to anybody. This is not what is needed.

Now that EirGrid has decided to forget about the lattice structures and pylons all over the south east and it is looking at undergrounding options, where does that leave the existing infrastructure built from Loop Head up through the centre of the country? People in the regions have grown up with those structures and we have spoken about electromagnetic radiation, with potential health and planning impacts. There are other concerns in the north east, the south east and the west. Where does this leave people in the midlands and the mid-west, who have had these for the 30 years since Moneypoint opened? People have a right to be absolutely incensed by the way in which this issue has been handled from start to finish. There is zero confidence in this process.