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

This is a technically complex issue when one looks into it but I would have to say that the Deputy’s colleagues in the administration in Northern Ireland, where Sinn Féin are in power, have agreed with the assessment that I have come to, which is that this infrastructure is absolutely vital. We are all agreed on that. We need an all-island market and, with the granting of the planning commission up North, they clearly see that this is the approach that should be taken. Rather than looking at the political aspect of it, of all of the series of reports that been done over the years, the one report done on a statutory basis which is independent and has to look at all of the evidence and to take into account all of the international studies that have been done on this - I only started to list out all of the series of independent studies which have been conducted on this - is done by the person with responsibility for assessing this evidence, the An Bord Pleanála inspector. The inspector's report came to the opinion that this is a critical element of the transmission system between Ireland and Northern Ireland and it has been demonstrated that an overhead line represents less risk as to security, reliability and availability than the DC option. There is an issue as to the security of the energy systems on the island, North and South. This is not an easy issue and EirGrid will have to be very careful on how the work with communities on both sides of the Border on this project. I believe having planning permission in the North and the South is such that-----

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