Pat Deering (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle’s office for accepting this important matter and the Minister for attending the Chamber to take it. As he is aware, we were waiting for this issue to be taken for several weeks.

Like my colleagues, I have attended numerous meetings in my constituency in the past few weeks to discuss this serious matter and listen to my constituents’ concerns about it. It is hard to understand how Carlow, the second smallest county, can have four designated Grid Link routes running through it. While this project was first announced 18 months, it is only in the past six weeks that the routes have been identified. People are concerned because of the lack of consultation. The Department’s strategic plan in 2012 set down a roadmap which stated:

The Government underlines the imperative for the State companies, and all developers of energy projects, of early, transparent engagement and consultation with local communities and stakeholders and the appropriateness of building community gain consideration into project planning and budgeting and as an intrinsic part of the ongoing consultation with local communities and local authorities.

Having local communities on side and knowing how they will gain from such a project are key to the whole Grid Link project. At the meetings I attended in my constituency people accepted that we needed to upgrade our electricity transmission infrastructure. Their issues are with how it will be done and the lack of information on the whole project.

There is no cost-benefit analysis of the implications of an overground versus underground option, the impact on the environment, tourism and land devaluation. The only way to sort out this problem is to have an independent expert group analyse these costs and issues to produce a definite analysis of the whole matter.

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