Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The country needs an integrated all-Ireland energy market. It also needs sufficient capacity for the future and accessibility to sustainable energy generation. It needs to provide this energy in an even manner across the regions. What we do not need is a system that may endanger the lives and health of citizens or create fear. We do not need a system that will reduce the cost of agricultural land and personal property. We do not need a system that will prevent the development of the energy market for decades, owing to intractable conflict. We do not need a system that will be forced on unwilling communities throughout the State.

In the mid-north east, where it is proposed to provide the north east-south interconnector, we have had six years of this process. We know more than most what is involved. We have had surveys, meetings, fund-raisers, Oireachtas committee meetings and expert reports and in the intervening period there has been a huge increase in the level of technology. We are now faced with confusion.

I believe the Minister made a statement to The Irish Timesat the end of January indicating that the North-South interconnector could not be put underground. This is despite the Government’s paying big money to an independent commission which stated that it could be put underground and after the fact that similar kV lines from Rush to Batterstown in County Meath run underground. We were told initially that the Minister said that it would not be included in the current review. I have some sympathy for the Minister because the Taoiseach may have pulled the rug from under his feet, after speaking to some of his backbenchers, and disregarded a Cabinet agreement on the North-South interconnector.

An EirGrid planning application is being withheld, or held back, until the independent review decides how to proceed. I stress that the North-South interconnector’s material impact on the citizens of the counties it goes through will be no different from that of any of the other projects going through the country. Not including it in the review is shockingly unfair to the citizens of that area. The North-South interconnector, Grid West and Grid Link projects have the same challenges and issues. They should be afforded the same level of analysis. I have heard the talk of urgency in that the North-South interconnector project is further advanced - some have stated that it is 97% there. This is not true. It is at planning inquiry stage, exactly as it was almost five years ago. EirGrid withdrew the planning application from this project in the middle of the oral hearing in 2010 because of a lack of thoroughness in its submission. Where is EirGrid's urgency in that process? A total of 97% of landowners along the route of the North-South interconnector have stated that they will never allow EirGrid onto their land to proceed with this. This has major implications for the opportunity for this project to proceed in a timely fashion. We are nowhere near 97% of the way through this process.

It has also been stated that there have been two previous reports on the North-South interconnector. These reports, however, did not tackle the proper construction cost and route identification, neither did they include the cost-benefit analysis to cover all the associated costs outside the technical and construction costs. We should make sure that we proceed in that manner.

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