Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I was at the ploughing championships today and the Minister's name came up quite an amount. I am not one for personalised attacks but he has become the figurehead for the perception that the Government does not listen to communities. The North-South interconnector is a good example of this. Communities have been very clear, as have we in the Opposition, that we understand the rationale for a North-South interconnector and we want to see it delivered. We have also pointed to Minister and his predecessors on several occasions that the principle of public acceptance and public engagement have not been met in respect of this project. We can proceed with this farcical situation whereby the Minister refuses to engage with local community. He has established a review to carry out a review of reviews. The elephant in the room is that undergrounding of this project has been deemed a credible option by the exact report the Minister has cited. What is the resistance to pursuing it in a way that will deliver the project in a more timely and efficient way than the current trajectory?

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