Kathryn Reilly (Sinn Fein)

The Minister, Deputy Rabbitte, said that we need to make a decision on the North-South interconnector and to proceed with doing the business. We must do that with due regard to current best European practice and the emerging technologies. We need to take account of the expert commission report published only a few weeks ago by the Minister's Department. It found that the undergrounding of the interconnector was a realistic solution, not that it was impossible or that it would cost 20 times the cost of overgrounding, as had been promoted by EirGrid for so long. That finding is primarily driven by significant technical developments and a commercial breakthrough of the most recently developed VSC HVDC technology. That needs to be taken into account when doing the business in that respect.

I heard it said a number of times in this debate that the Government has committed, but that means nothing. As was said, the larger Government party, Fine Gael, made substantial commitments, especially in respect of the North-South interconnector. It said it would halt all activity in respect of the interconnector until a report was commissioned but while the report was being produced, EirGrid engaged in its first round of non-statutory consultation. Fine Gael also said that it would instruct EirGrid to reimburse the groups and communities involved with the costs associated with participation in the oral hearing in 2010, but that has not happened. That needs to be done and I encourage the Minister to take that on board.