Cathal Byrne (Fine Gael)

The Minister is most welcome to the Chamber. As the Fine Gael spokesperson on infrastructure in this Chamber, I welcome this Bill. I acknowledge the investment of €1.5 billion into the ESB. I thank, most sincerely, the men and women across the ESB for the fantastic work that they do in ensuring power supply to each one of us across the country. I recognise the increase in the borrowing limit up to €17 billion. There are two points I want to highlight relating to my own area in Wexford. The first one is the average length of time it is taking for the ESB to connect a one-off house in the countryside. I appreciate that there are difficulties at times with getting access to power lines, cables and so on to hook up a new-build home. As the Minister is well aware from his previous role, we appear to have an issue in Wexford where it is taking a disproportionate length of time to connect a new build one-off house in Wexford than perhaps we anecdotally hear in other parts of the country in similar rural areas.

Second, I want to highlight the need for greater engagement between the Department and local authorities around the length of time it is taking for large-scale solar applications to go through the planning process and get constructed, and the impact that it is having on the local rural road network. There is an issue when it comes to putting in the cables and the wires, and hooking up between the solar farm and back to the grid. It appears to me that local authorities, the Department and the ESB could work a bit better to try to speed that process up for local residents living in areas where these large solar farms are, like in my own county in Wexford, particularly in south Wexford, where this seems to be an issue that is coming up again and again. Perhaps the Minister will take an interest in that area.