Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am glad the Minister has said that. I am trying to be balanced and reasonable here, but I was disappointed with the attitude taken by the Deputy. Debate in Private Members' business often takes a mature and reflective view. My understanding of the conundrum that is faced by anybody who wants to put in major infrastructure was clarified in a case when efforts were made to put a 110 kVA line into Connemara. On one side, we were constrained by the SACs, while on the other side we were constrained trying to keep the line away from houses. No matter which way we go, we tend to get into trouble. I imagine that one of the driving forces for moving into less populated areas is the very need to keep away as far as one practically can from areas of high population where the line would be running near to dwelling houses. However, when that is done, the lines run into areas of great scenic amenity.

Over the period of time that this has been debated since the beginning of the North-South lines, I have moved from a position that with community gain, there might not be much option in real terms, due to cost, to do anything other than put the vast majority of the line over the ground on pylons. A few things have swayed my view in a different direction, one of which is the already stated drop. It was a 10:1 ratio when it started, but now it is a 3:1 ratio. Some of these gadgets have more power than the kind of computers that only a major multinational company could buy 30 or even 20 years ago. If the EU was to take a decision that to preserve the visual landscape of Europe, it would put resources into developing the technology to do this underground, then I believe those ratios would drop dramatically. We must ask what is our landscape worth? We can say that we have to move these lines away from houses because there are all sorts of implications for people's well being, lifestyle and so on, but when we move in the other direction, we have to ask, with all of these landscape policies to stop building houses and other structures, if the cost of putting it underground totally outweighs the protection of the landscape.

As a nation, we need to know how far we can drive down the cost. We also need to know the absolute feasibility of putting these underground. That should be put to the people as a whole, and they should decide whether they are willing to pay the extra cost to do what I think the vast majority of Irish citizens want, which is to put these lines underground.

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