Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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207. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment further to Parliamentary Question No. 141 of 2 November 2021, if he will provide the name of the Italian consultant companies appointed to undertake the review of the North-South Interconnector. [55400/21]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The North-South Interconnector is critical to improving the efficient operation of the all-island Integrated Single Electricity Market (I-SEM) and increasing security of electricity supply in Ireland and Northern Ireland. It is also a critically important element in EirGrid’s recently published ‘Shaping Our Electricity Future’ roadmap for the delivery of our renewable electricity targets by 2030.

As the Deputy will be aware, the North South Interconnector has now passed all planning and legal challenges both North and South and has been reviewed on a number of occasions, most recently in 2018 where it was found that an overhead line remains the most appropriate option for this critical electricity infrastructure.

Notwithstanding this, I decided to commission a further short review to assess if the overall finding from the 2018 report remains valid. Two Italian experts in transmission grid infrastructure, Dr. Angelo L’Abbate and Andrea Mansoldo, both operating as independent consultants, are now engaged on the review and their work is well advanced at this stage.