Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

I am informed there is no benefit in going to 1,000 MW in terms of the construction costs. It is more debatable whether it makes sense in terms of energy. The analysis carried out by the Department showed that a phased introduction to interconnection was a better way of doing it. Care must be taken to develop our own market systems here by encouraging generation and not to undermine this by introducing a large supply on an interconnection basis which might undermine some of the renewable development projects here. It will be a measured approach which allows us to proceed further and gain experience in new technology such as long distance sea cable interconnection. This will provide information on further opportunities such as further interconnection into the UK or possibly into France or into grids which run in a north-south direction along the Irish Sea.

To answer the Deputy's question, it is proposed that the transmission network will be managed and owned by EirGrid and that includes the interconnector in this case.

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