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

I do not have the exact figures but this issue has been subject to debate. I have had extensive meetings with the county councils in counties impacted but also with the North-South Ministerial Council, where the Deputy's Sinn Féin colleagues in Northern Ireland have a critical role. They agree with me that we need this project. It needs to be built and it is vital for both the Northern economy and the wider island. It will save Irish consumers about €100 million a year but will also bring significant security benefits and economic development benefits, especially to the Border counties and counties on the other side of the Border. The project crosses the Border and exists on both sides, and my understanding is that a larger percentage of landowners in the North have agreed to, or are in broad agreement with, the arrangements they may have negotiated directly. That is less so the case in the South but that is an issue for EirGrid, the CRU and ESB Networks, which is the company that will be involved in the development of the facility.

While we do not get involved in the direct negotiations or with any of the arrangements for the specific project, my political view is that we need this project to be built. As the Deputy said, it has been under consideration for 20 years. We have looked at it upside down and inside out and it now needs to be built. I will be supportive of whatever proposals are put forward by EirGrid or the CRU, as the independent regulator, for how we will do that, but it is time now to build the project and I will be supportive of whatever role the agencies have in making that happen.

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