Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 4 March 2014
218. Deputy Michelle Mulherin asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the terms of reference for the expert panel to oversee the preparation of reports on Grid Link and Grid West; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10363/14]
View answerOn 28 January last, in response to EirGrid’s recent public consultation process, I announced that I had appointed an Independent Panel of Experts, to be chaired by Mrs Justice Catherine McGuinness, to decide the terms of reference for, and to oversee the integrity of a process to be undertaken by EirGrid to report on, comprehensive, route-specific studies of overhead and underground options for both the Grid Link and Grid West projects.
The outputs from those studies, which will be required to be complete, objective and comparable, will be published before proceeding to the next stage of public consultation on those two projects. The two studies will take account of environmental (including visual amenity) impacts, technical efficacy and cost factors. The Panel will have power to commission its own work if there is any perceived deficiency in the studies presented.
The Panel has now commenced its deliberations including settling the terms of reference to oversee the integrity of the process now being put into place. The Panel’s terms of reference will be published by the Panel once they have been agreed. Similarly, the Panel's position regarding submissions of material to it, and third party requests to meet with it, will also be published once the Panel has finalised and agreed its position on these matters.
