Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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1. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the position regarding EirGrid’s Grid 25 plans; the total cost of these plans; if he will issue a response to the 35,000 submissions to the Grid Link project; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4479/14]

Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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3. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the way the concerns of residents will be accommodated in the plans for the new EirGrid pylon network; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4495/14]

Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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Will the Minister update the House on EirGrid's Grid25 plans, the total costs to date of the plan and respond to the 35,000 submissions on the Grid Link project?

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 and 3 together.

EirGrid’s Grid25 national transmission grid development programme is vital for future socio-economic progress in Ireland, for regional development throughout Ireland, and to ensure that current and future generations of consumers have access to more reliable, sustainable and affordable energy. Grid25 represents an investment in the electricity transmission system of around €3.2 billion in the coming 15 to 20 years.

During the course of engagement by EirGrid in the recent public consultation processes, and most recently on the Grid Link project on which 35,000 submissions were received, a number of key concerns emerged. This has necessitated considerable review and reflection to determine the optimum approach needed to address those concerns that are valid, while at the same time ensuring adequate and effective transmission capacity in the State.

Arising from examination of the concerns expressed, I have proposed a number of measures to deal with the immediate concerns on the Grid West and Grid Link projects, while also addressing the generality of commentary on the need to improve stakeholder and community engagement on all Grid25 projects for the future.

I have appointed an independent panel of experts, to be chaired by the Honourable Mrs. Justice Catherine McGuinness. The panel of experts will decide the terms of reference for comprehensive route-specific studies of fully underground and overhead options for the Grid Link and the Grid West projects. The panel will be required to ensure the process for taking forward the Grid Link and Grid West projects accords with the highest standards of integrity. They will also be asked to ensure the studies are complete, impartial, objective and comparable and will report to me on these matters in due course. The overhead and underground options will be published side by side, in objective and comparable terms, before consideration is given to the appropriate next steps for each of the projects.

EirGrid will be required to undertake the two studies, as determined by the independent panel of experts, which will take account of, inter alia, environmental and visual amenity impacts, technical efficacy and cost factors. The independent panel will have power to commission additional work if there is any perceived deficiency in the studies presented.

Additionally, I will ask the chairperson of EirGrid to undertake a comprehensive assessment, with a view to improving, EirGrid’s community engagement processes and procedures, having regard to the significant public concerns raised on this issue. I believe EirGrid will respond to the demands of meaningful and extensive public consultation and will take account of lessons learned from the most recent consultation process in addition to consideration of the Government policy statement of July 2012 on the strategic importance of transmission and other energy infrastructure. A package of community gain measures to address issues of visual impact and property devaluation for overhead options of grid projects are being developed in close discussion with the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government.

The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government will also engage expert assistance to review and report on international developments since 2007 on any potential health effects of electromagnetic fields emanating from transmission grid infrastructure. In 2007, an expert group established by the then Minister with responsibility for energy published a report on health effects of electromagnetic fields. The forthcoming review will bring this 2007 report up to date.

The situation is different regarding the North-South transmission line for several reasons. The reality is that planning for this project has been under way for the past ten years. A planning application has already been submitted for the part of the project in Northern Ireland and that planning process is in train.

Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister. EirGrid's Grid25 project is exercising minds in a raft of the countryside where it is proposed to go ahead. Is the North-South interconnector covered under the jurisdiction of Mrs. Justice Catherine McGuinness? Will it be part of her considerations? There are conflicting reports from various political parties and I would like it clarified. For completeness, we called for an independent international review prior to Christmas.

Many of the people who have contacted me and the groups that I have spoken to have expressed health issues as their main concern. If there is to be any completeness or confidence in the debate the health issues must be to the fore. I would like the Minister to clarify the current position on the North-South transmission line.

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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I shall respond to the second question first. There is no question of the health issue not being included in the panel. Rather it is a matter that relates to the responsibility of the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government. Responsibility for any concerns in respect of electromagnetic fields or non-ionising radiation is a matter for him also. As I said in my formal statement, he is arranging for expert advice to bring the 2007 report up to date. It is not a question, as has been said, of having nobody on the expert panel with a medical or scientific background in the area. That matter is the jurisdiction of another Minister and the memorandum that I brought to Government requires him to do so and to bring it up to speed. He will do so.

As regards the North-South issue, it might be best if I state my few formal words that coincidently happen to address Deputy Moynihan's other question. Detailed studies have already been conducted for the North-South project, most recently by the independent international commission of experts appointed in July 2011, arising from a commitment in the programme for Government. A route-specific underground analysis was conducted by PB Power which found that the cost of undergrounding would significantly exceed the cost of the more usual overhead cables. The PB Power analysis was considered and confirmed by the independent commission who estimated that the cost of undergrounding would be at least three times that of overhead cables.

The North-South transmission line is a critical and strategically urgent transmission reinforcement and is of critical importance in the broader North-South context. This is because as well as reinforcing the grid in the north east region of the State, the transmission line will be a vital link in maintaining the security of electricity supply for Northern Ireland into the future. I recognise, however, that the public would be reassured if it knew that the overhead and underground options for the North-South have both been investigated and that the already published studies are sufficient to enable a similar comparison to be made by An Bord Pleanála when they come to decide on the merits of the planning application.

I shall give a specific answer to Deputy Moynihan's question. Tomorrow I shall meet the chairperson of the expert review panel, Mrs. Justice Catherine McGuinness, to discuss the work programme for the panel. I will ask her to consider what work, if any, the panel might usefully undertake to establish whether or not there has been parity of treatment between the North-South transmission line project, in terms of the work undertaken to date, and the very issues that the expert review panel will examine regarding Grid Link and Grid West into the future.

Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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As the Minister will know, many communities are extremely concerned about the huge pylon infrastructure. Their concerns are all very well-grounded in terms of its huge effect on the environment, fears for their health and its impact on people's daily lives. Is the Minister concerned that many of these groups are unconvinced by the commission that he has established? They view it as a way of getting the issue past the local and European elections that will be a huge point of protest and pressure on the Government. Is he aware that people are concerned that EirGrid, which is driving the project, shall play a key role in the investigation and, therefore, will be seen to have an undue influence on the outcome?

The committee shall comprise five members and the Minister has included two noted professors. One of them is noted for a report published some years ago that championed privatisation and public sector cuts of an extreme nature. The second professor has pushed for stealth taxes, property taxes and water taxes to be imposed on householders and other taxpayers for many years. I put it to the Minister that the ideological neo-liberal bent of the two individuals will not give confidence that the report, or the views that influence the report, will be anything except what is driven by the interests of the establishment.

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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I entirely accept - as I have on dozens of occasions - that it is imperative that EirGrid is sensitive to the concerns raised by community groups and citizens. I have gone to great pains to ensure that the views and concerns, not just of groups that I have met but citizens generally, are taken into account and assessed in terms of how EirGrid and the Government ought to respond. I also accept that some people are never happy unless they are unhappy and I do not agree with the Deputy's claim that there have been concerns expressed about the probity of the exercise now under way. The steps that I have put in place to deal with the issues - highlighted in the public consultation - will be supervised or overseen by a panel of distinguished experts and chaired by a former Supreme Court judge. I do not and have not heard anybody who believes that a panel of that eminence - established to oversee the integrity of the process - can be questioned in terms of it independent or competence to see that the steps taken are fair, objective, impartial, comprehensive and comparable. I am absolutely satisfied about that and I am indebted to those people for giving their time to supervise or oversee the implementation of measures that are particularly and specifically designed to respond to the concerns raised during the public consultation.

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle: I thank the Minister but I must call Deputies Moynihan and Higgins. Deputy Moynihan shall be first.

Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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With regard to the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government having jurisdiction of another aspect of the project regarding health, the project itself and the concerns of the communities, the two Departments should be on song and completely together. With regard the statement that was issued on Tuesday, it should have been announced that one Department was commissioning the report and the other Department was parallel with it, and not that they will do something.

The concerns that people have about health, the visual impact and destruction of their communities are well founded. Since the project was announced it has generated a large amount of fear. At this late stage the two Departments should say that they shall take the project and do it as one and not say that one Department may update the 2007 report or whatever. That information gives more cause for concern within communities.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I call Deputy Higgins. We are almost out of time so I suggest that the Minister respond to the two contributions together.

Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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There is no question about the eminence, independence or competence of the Minister's panel. That was not the point that I made. I made the point that there are two formidable personalities on the panel who are driven by right-wing neo-liberal philosophies. That is bound to have an effect on the outcome in regard to the balance between ordinary people and the needs of the establishment and, in this case, costs. Does the Minister accept that undergrounding, at an extra cost, is worth the prize considering the fact that it will have much less effect on the environment and there are less concerns regarding people's health? It is demeaning to communities and individuals that have expressed their concerns about this huge pylon project for the Minister to describe them as being never happy unless they are unhappy. These people are faced with the prospect of having pylons placed beside them which will be 45 m in height and with cables carrying 400,000 volts of electricity giving rise to serious concerns about the effect of electromagnetic fields on health, particularly children's health.

These are all very serious concerns so people have a right to be unhappy, to express that unhappiness and to try to get the situation changed.

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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I most emphatically did not refer to the people expressing concerns as being in the category to which Deputy Higgins refers when I said there are some people who are never happy unless they are unhappy. I was referring to Deputy Higgins and people who think like him who dismiss out of hand the fact a measure has been born out of the public consultation process and is designed to respond to the concerns of citizens and who engage in allegations about the supposed right wing ideology of two members of the panel. For the life of me, I cannot see what their supposed ideology or philosophy has got to do with this. The question is whether they are eminent citizens of probity who will ensure the process is conducted with integrity and that it is fair, authoritative, objective and complete. This expert panel, chaired by former Supreme Court Justice Ms Catherine McGuinness, is not charged with making recommendations to me about what should or should not be done about the build out of necessary grid in Ireland. It is charged with the responsibility to ensure the studies we are doing in response to the public consultation are carried out in a proper fashion and that they can be relied on in terms of the professional competence, authority and fairness of the reports. I am not putting in an expert panel to replace a State agency or anything like that. I am putting in a panel to ensure that what is done is done in accordance with best practice and proper principles.

On Deputy Moynihan's question, I agree with him that it is imperative there is co-ordination and co-operation between two Departments that have different responsibilities and that is happening. I assure him of that. However, I cannot take over the function of another Minister. If, say, there was a taxation element to this, I would have to deal with the Revenue Commissioners or the Department of Finance. I cannot take over the responsibility that is reposed in the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government. I can assure Deputy Moynihan that there is optimum co-operation between the Minister, Deputy Phil Hogan, and myself on this issue.