Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

This is a real issue of concern for the Deputy’s constituents and for many of the people in this House and the people they represent. It is an issue that goes back a long time. I first engaged on this issue in 2003 or 2004 when, in the Oireachtas committee of which I was then a member - Deputy Durkan will remember that period, the vital strategic nature of this project and the optimal nature of the infrastructure that was recommended at that time was made very clear to us. That was 16 or 17 years ago. In that interim period we have seen a variety of different studies, as this has been an issue of real seriousness and concern and one that many Deputies have raised. In 2008, in my time as Minister, we commissioned a Dutch energy consultancy, Ecofys, to produce a study of the comparative merits of overhead electricity transmission versus underground cables. In 2009, EirGrid published a report by industry experts, PB Power, on the same subject. I could go on; there have been many independent and other studies. Will I be able to come back in to make a further intervention, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle?

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