Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I feel a sense of déjà vu, as I am sure the Minister does. During Question Time on 7 February, I appealed to him to withhold Government funding from the capital phase of the North-South interconnector project until such time as the impact of Brexit had been realised. Since then, the Houses passed Fianna Fáil motions calling for an independent expert analysis of the technical feasibility and cost of undergrounding the interconnector, so I was shocked by the Department's responses to my parliamentary questions on when the motion was due to be put into action.

The Government is showing a blatant disregard for the democratic process by ignoring the recent Dáil and Seanad motions, which is clearly the plan, given the responses. The Minister plans to narrow the motions down to a minimal focus on the cost analyses of published studies and ensure that the commencement of construction in 2018 is not affected.

It is in stark contrast to the motion which was passed, which included incorporating international industry expertise to examine the technical feasibility and the cost of undergrounding the North-South interconnector, but it also included evaluating the potential impacts of both undergrounding and overgrounding the North-South interconnector on surrounding areas considering such aspects as its impact on local tourism, health, landscape and agriculture and heritage.

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