Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The development and upgrade of our grid infrastructure, including interconnection with neighbouring electricity systems, is necessary to drive regional economic growth and job creation. Grid25 is EirGrid's plan to develop and upgrade the electricity transmissions network. This project will take several years to complete and represents an investment of €3.2 billion. It involves extensive work throughout the country, including the construction of 800 km of new power lines and the upgrade of 2,000 km of existing lines, which, in effect, will double the size of the current grid.

The North-South transmission is a critical piece of infrastructure. Its absence is currently costing economies and consumers up to €30 million per annum. Without it, the system is more inefficient. The Government has made it a priority to retain the networks in State ownership as a strategic infrastructure and to ensure that they are developed and maintained in the interests of Irish citizens and consumers. It is also Government policy that infrastructure investment programmes are delivered in the most cost-efficient and timely way possible on the basis of best available knowledge and informed engagement of the impacts and costs of different engineering solutions.

Public acceptance and understanding of the need for new infrastructure is critical. A key part of developing this public confidence is that EirGrid should adhere to the highest international standards of safety, health, environmental and visual impact and technology choice. The planning process provides the framework for ensuring that necessary standards are met and provides in law and on a non-statutory basis that consultation with the public be built into that process. EirGrid must adhere to national and international standards on health, environment, biodiversity, landscape and safety as an intrinsic part of the environmental impact assessment and planning process. It is required to use the best available advice and expertise and to address and mitigate any human, environmental or landscape impact in delivering the best possible engineering solutions for our small and still isolated electricity system.

The Government does not have a role in directing EirGrid to particular sites, routes or technologies. This is a matter for EirGrid and the forward planning process.

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