Noel Dempsey (Meath, Fianna Fail)

The issue of competitive tendering seeks to remove the option of the CER securing the construction of an interconnector by any means other than a competitive tender. I fully understand the reason the Senator tabled this amendment but I assure him that a competitive tender is the preferred option. It is difficult to envisage a situation where a tender process would not be put in place for an interconnector. I am advised that it should not be the only means open to the CER to secure the construction of an interconnector in case an emergency or a matter of urgency arose and the CER needed a number of options.

With regard to the Senator's concern for tabling this amendment, namely, that an interconnector would be constructed and it would be simply a matter of the CER selecting a contractor, that is not what is intended. It is not proposed to amend the provision. Where an interconnector is part of the Irish transmission system and owned by the ESB, it would fall to the ESB to procure or carry out the works to construct it. That is what we are trying to cover in this section. If the ESB had responsibility for a North-South interconnector and it procured it, it would be subject to the normal procedures for State and semi-State companies applying to EU procurement rules. I am advised that the wording must be as it stands to allow for that. The only other circumstances that come to mind where shortcuts might be taken in securing the construction of an interconnector would be in an emergency situation but again public procurement rules would apply in such a case.