Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Obviously applications for such funding cannot be forthcoming because there is no potential for a legal interest in the applicant while the present situation continues. While I accept the bona fides of the Minister's response, I would have thought it would be impossible for the ESB to make an application for permission to retain the structures which would supersede the previous permission and the conditions associated with it. If I am to take it at face value, the Minister is telling me that despite the publication and the seeking of tenders for its demolition publicised last week, ESB may well not act upon any such submissions it might receive and it would be folly on the part of any commercial operation to seek to tender, in the knowledge that the Minister has today informed the House that the prospect of a green energy hub remains alive. This raises the prospect of a potential open competition from the wider public for the Minister or the ESB to ascertain the benefit to the community of offering alternatives that might well benefit the region. This would be preferable to a semi-State body demolishing something that cost many hundreds of millions of euro in the past ten to 20 years, but more to the point, demolishing prospective alternatives which might well yield a much better result.

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