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

I met the Minister the other day and earlier in the summer. It is very difficult because there is no Administration up North. There is keen interest in it even if there are no structures whereby a government up North can make a decision on this. We need a decision. I first started hearing about this 20 years ago when it was described as the most important and urgent project to deliver an effective all-island energy system. In the intervening years, all of the energy experts I have heard have said that we have to have it as part of a synchronised AC system, especially if we want industrial development in the Border counties. We could run a line up the Irish Sea from Belfast to Dublin but what we would then have is an island where economic development is only in Dublin and Belfast.

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