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

I, more than anyone else, regret the delay. As a Member of this House in 2003, I remember the then joint Oireachtas committee on energy having a presentation from EirGrid, our transmission grid company, at which it said that we urgently need a North-South interconnector. For many years looking at international experience and reading several reports, the clear analysis presented was that an overground wire was the only way one could do it. One could do it, potentially, on a high-voltage direct current where one can ship power over long distances, let us say, from Belfast to Dublin, but that would then mean economic real disadvantage to counties either side of the Border. It would also undermine necessary greater energy co-operation, North and South.

I was the Minister at the time who introduced the single electricity market and saw EirGrid taking on the role of managing our transmission system in the North as well as in the South. I believe it has good engineers. I regret Sinn Féin's position. I cannot understand not only this issue but other related issues where Sinn Féin seems to support a disintegration of our island on an energy system basis. I am scratching my head wondering why this would be in the interests of Sinn Féin.

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