Jim O'Keeffe
Ceist:63 Mr. J. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Public Enterprise the proposals, if any, she has for the extension of the natural gas pipeline throughout the country. [22680/98]
Written Answers. - Natural Gas Grid.
Michael D. Higgins
Ceist:79 Mr. M. Higgins asked the Minister for Public Enterprise if she has received the study of gas demand to the year 2025; if she has examined the details of the extension of the natural gas transmission network from Dublin to Galway and south to Limerick; when the project will proceed; if Exchequer funding has been sought in 1999 to lower the funding required by Bord Gáis Éireann; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22656/98]
I propose to answer Questions Nos. 63 and 79 together.
I refer the Deputies to my previous reply of 30 September 1998 to Parliamentary Question No. 90.
The various evaluations to which I referred in that reply are now being undertaken.
One of the key priorities for the energy sector in the programme for Government, An Action Programme for the Millennium, is to extend natural gas as far as practicable to major towns and cities. I am fully committed to this policy objective.
Bord Gáis Éireann's policy is to extend the gas network where it is commercially viable to do so.