Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Communities throughout the country which are gathering to try to take on the might of EirGrid are faced with a State organisation funded by their taxes and international money which can employ the best consultants available. This has ensured the best engineering, planning and public relations consultants in the country are working to the Grid25 agenda. When they try to find people to make a case for them they are scrambling to fundraise to pay fees and they find the selection available is not what it could be if EirGrid were not in the market.

We are asking David to take on Goliath and David wants to know that his arguments will be assessed in an independent way. That is why we believe an independent analysis should be carried out in respect of the various factors involved, and this analysis should include input from all stakeholders. On this occasion, the stakeholders must be the communities that will be affected by the plans rather than just the usual suspects. People who may be affected should not only come to realise that fact after the event. They should not wake up with the arrival of a letter from EirGrid three or four years into the project stating that their homes are on a preferred route. It should not be the case that published routes can be changed and that more houses can be affected as a result. Those who were informed last March that they would not be affected by the Grid West project awoke one Monday morning in October to discover that their houses are now bang in the middle of the preferred corridor. When they sought reasons, they were given different answers.

During this debate and at meetings of the joint committee, Government Deputies have expressed concerns about both the consultation process and EirGrid's ability or willingness to manage the information flowing from it to the communities involved and to deal with the concerns of those communities. Those Deputies are now going to vote confidence in that consultation process and in an organisation which has not done well to date in the context of dealing with that process or disseminating information to the communities to which I refer. It has never been our intention to have the project suspended. What we are seeking is an independent analysis of the various aspects relating to it. To paraphrase the Taoiseach, Paddy should be given the clear information he requires. If that happens, matters might progress and people might begin to have confidence. None of the communities affected by the project have confidence in either EirGrid or its ability to respect their concerns or to take account of these in the final plan relating to Grid 25. The feeling among many in the communities in question is that EirGrid is going to proceed to use the powers already at its disposal - and perhaps additional ones it might be granted next year - to ram the project through, despite the concerns being expressed. This Oireachtas has a responsibility to provide reassurance to the communities involved on economic, health and other grounds. We must ensure that they are not blinded by spin and that they do not roll over in front of the EirGrid juggernaut. With its motion, Fianna Fáil has presented the House with the opportunity to do just that.

We all believe in the need to upgrade the grid. However, this cannot be done at a cost to communities and at the expense of community solidarity. Another nasty aspect of the project is that communities which are united and whose members are working well together are being split down the middle. EirGrid is handing out money to landowners in order to try to ensure this matter will be done and dealt with in the near future. EirGrid will eventually move on but the legacy relating to how this project is being implemented will be one of bitterness and division in communities which, to date, have been exemplars of the concept of meitheal and of working together. The Oireachtas is being given the opportunity to state that it wants a different perspective and that an independent review should be carried out. We extend to Government Deputies an invitation to join us in obtaining that which we seek.

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