Shane McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)

On 6 February the Minister announced he was commissioning an independent study on the national transmission line infrastructure. Subsequently, his Department set a deadline of 29 February for the receipt of tenders from potential consultants and announced 7 March as the deadline for receipt of submissions from interested parties to the consultants. The Department's offer for tenders indicated that 40 days would be allowed for completion of the study and that it would be completed by the end of May.

We are now at 8 April and it has taken until today for the Minister to officially announce the name of the consultants who will carry out this extremely important study. It has taken the Minister and his Department two months to come up with a name and that is an unacceptable delay for the people I represent.

If I had not pressed for this adjournment matter this evening, would the Minister have continued to put the announcement on the long finger? I note that the consultants appointed are Ecofys from the Netherlands, assisted by Golder Associates from Canada. These companies are well respected in their fields and I wish to put on the record that they are collaborating closely as joint venture partners in a number of other countries. Ecofys operates in the area of wind power generation and Golder Associates in engineering and environmental works. Neither company, however, has expertise in the construction and management of overground or underground high power electricity lines.

Ecofys acted as consultants on a major section of the all-island grid study commissioned by, and recently completed for, the Department. Given the study's recommendation that more than 600 km of the high power lines of the grid will have to be strengthened, as EirGrid now proposes in the north east, it could be perceived that the independence and impartiality of Ecofys to carry out this study on the underground versus overground issue is compromised. On the face of the known facts, there is a conflict of interest.

I have a number of questions to ask the Minister. Will he accept that the appointment of Ecofys, assisted by Golder Associates, means the study will lack the necessary expertise and experience to do a proper job? Ecofys worked on the final report of the all-island grid study, which is the basis on which EirGrid is proceeding with its pylons proposal. Therefore, one would have to question the independence and impartiality of Ecofys to carry out this study. I note that the Minister is citing early June as the date for completion of the study but this is a ludicrously tight deadline for completion of this massive, complex undertaking. More than 500 members of the public and interested parties sent submissions to the Minister's Department for consideration by the consultants. Would the Minister agree that to even read those 500 submissions properly would take up to early June?

There is still time for the Minister to get this right as it is better to get it done right than to get it done quickly. Too much is at stake here for the people of Meath, Cavan and Monaghan. The Minister must re-advertise for a properly qualified firm of international consultants to carry out this study and he must allow far more than 40 days for its completion. Until it is completed, the Minister must instruct EirGrid not to proceed with any further planning or preparation on this project.

Two months ago we discussed this matter with the Minister and for four weeks the people of Meath, Cavan and Monaghan came here and felt they would be part of this process. To read of it in a newspaper two weeks ago was an insult to all of those involved and to the work of this House. It is wrong that it was necessary to force the Minister to make a statement today. It is unacceptable that stakeholders were not consulted and I call on the Minister of State at the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Tony Killeen, to ask the Minister to contact the north-east pylon pressure group and EirGrid to have them engage in discussions in the same room. This matter should not be allowed to drag on for eight to ten years but it seems that may happen.

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