Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have attended virtually every meeting, both in government and opposition, and took the flak when my party was in government and sometimes when we were in opposition. I have always worked to achieve the will of the people on this issue, which is the sensible solution. Let us consider the time that has been wasted on this project, which was conceived as a means of having a secure electricity supply because there had been terrorist attacks on the electricity network at the time. The small interconnector in place at that time was not working properly and it was proposed to have a full interconnector between both parts of the island.

Fianna Fáil supports the creation of a North-South electricity connection, whether to buttress our supply or to help our friends in the North of Ireland. This is crucial for us and the island of Ireland. It is important, not only in a technical and electrical sense but also to bring together both parts of the country. While we support a North-South interconnector unequivocally, we do not support blindly erecting pylons in open countryside in some of most well known heritage areas or beside homes. We do not support blighting the countryside when we are dependent on tourism and when such a large number of people live in rural areas. We must move with the times and recognise that the undergrounding of electricity lines is starting all over the world. Electricity companies realise that the costs of delay are substantial, as we have seen here. Ten years ago, who would have thought the Dáil would be debating this issue and the project would still not have commenced? I would have been shocked ten years ago if I had been told this would happen because EirGrid informed us in public documents at that time that the South of Ireland would have electricity supply problems in 2011 or 2012 if the project was not approved. We are five years on from 2012 and we have not seen negative effects on the electricity network as a result of the delay in installing the line. I accept, however, that problems have arisen in the North of Ireland.

We must take into account the acknowledgement by the An Bord Pleanála inspector that it is possible to put the line underground. The inspector also suggested to the board of An Bord Pleanála that it commission a specific independent study on undergrounding the project. The board's decision not to do so does not mean the Oireachtas should not do it. On the contrary, we should commission a study. The motion seeks to do nothing more than to put in place something the community is asking for and an independent An Bord Pleanála inspector has suggested could be worthwhile. While An Bord Pleanála can probably legitimately, as a planning authority, decide on the merits of a particular planning application, the Dáil is a public authority as opposed to a planning authority and we decide what happens in this country. If an option is available, it needs to be fully explored, which is what the motion seeks to achieve in pursuing the will of the people.

It is essential that the Government take cognisance of and acts on the motion if it passed. Fianna Fáil views it as a high priority in terms of our interactions with Fine Gael on how the Dáil operates. The Government will have to deal with this and I want to clearly convey this message to the Minister and the Minister of State. This view is not confined to Fianna Fáil Deputies. It seems that regardless of who is appointed Minister with responsibility for energy, his or her position is always that we do not have a choice in the matter. There is a choice and an An Bord Pleanála inspector opened the door to this choice by showing, in an independent way, that this can be done.

Deputies cannot say one thing in opposition and do another thing when in government. That is one of the biggest lessons I learned arising out of the economic crisis. Fianna Fáil in opposition is putting forward proposals that it is prepared to stand over 100% when it gets into government. It is to be hoped we will get into government at some point. We often do not support Bills put forward by other parties not out of disrespect to them or because we do not want to support them but because we have taken a decision that if to do so would not be credible in government, we cannot support it in opposition. The same applies in this regard.

This is something that we would do if we were in government. It is a simple measure. We need to get the independent study done and show that this can be done. We cannot have the naysayers in officialdom saying it cannot be done and that we should ignore the will of the people, such that, as in Sassoon's poem, they can toddle home safely and die in bed like the generals in the war. They do not have to live beside or suffer the effects of these pylons every day, all the while knowing that they can be put underground along with other utilities and away from everybody. We will welcome that line being put underground. Unlike a former north County Dublin Dáil colleague of the Ministers of State, Deputies English, McEntee and Kyne, I will not be part of any campaign to stop a line going underground. We already have a line underground in south county Meath, in respect of which there was community buy-in. It has proven highly successful. It is important to point out that EirGrid's engagement with the community in regard to that line was very good. If, by applying political pressure and so on, we can get EirGrid past the stage of adhering to what it wants to do, in my experience EirGrid will be good to deal with. It is, after all, a State body. Our only disagreement with EirGrid is that we do not believe this line should go overground. We want it underground. It seems, subject to the vote on Thursday, that Dáil Éireann will also agree with this. The Government will then have to act on it. I know that in the discussions our parties have on the ongoing arrangements, this will be a feature.

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