Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 27 November 2018
194. Deputy Seán Haughey asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if the Office of Public Works is planning to provide a new entrance and exit to the Casino at Marino which is a designated national monument; the planning requirements needed to facilitate this redevelopment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49386/18]
View answerThe Deputy probably needs to consider the connection policy because it sets out the framework that needs to be fulfilled. This includes identifying the businesses that will potentially use gas and their scale - there are concessionary rates for connection charges where there are small and medium sized enterprises, SMEs; and identifying the new estates that might come on stream that would use it and other towns along the route that might connect in. Gas Networks Ireland, GNI, is not going to undertake an assessment of these. This is based on projects that are coming forward, enterprises identified that are about to be approved or supported by the Industrial Development Authority, IDA or Enterprise Ireland. When those enterprises are identified and have a demand for gas then GNI can assess whether that will be connected. Neither GNI nor the Department go speculatively looking to see if they could create a demand for gas. That is not the way the system works. This has been regulated by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU. The emergence of new biorefinery activities with a gas demand will trigger an application to the connections policy and provide the opportunity to pass the test applied. It does not lay pipes in advance in the hope that industries might set up. That is not the approval system. There has to be a baseline of work to justify the investment it makes. It is a commercial company and that is the way it has to operate under its regulations.
