Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Community engagement is essential to any major infrastructural project. It is essential out of a sense of fairness but also to make sure that it is accepted, that it proceeds and that the right answers are found for it. This project could not be described as one that was rushed: it has been running for 15 years. I do not think we can have it two ways: we cannot say that we need to make sure we do this right, listen to the public and have engagement and then say that we should not have this final review to make sure all the conclusions of the previous reports are valid and that this is a waste of taxpayers' money. Either we are going to have the review and examine the project and listen to people or we are not. We are not building the infrastructure until we see what is in the review and that the conclusions of the previous report are valid. In terms of undergrounding cables, we had previous protests at underground cables. It is not the final solution that makes everybody happy. There are other concerns. A different set of people will come forward and say that they are not happy with underground cables.

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