Eigrid Grid 25 launch
We believe the investment in this grid is a key first step in providing security in the future for our country. I have a clear sense as well though of that broader picture that one of the benefits of this strategy is that it’s local. I think that the way it’s set out in terms of each regional, looking at what the implications of the national strategy working down to the regional level, is absolutely correct; and I suppose coming back to that economic message of where we see our economic future; unless we develop the grid in these regions we will not see employment in those regions. It is the bedrock now of the new digital economies that are expanding to have a secure electricity supply. And that requires a strong grid; that requires a grid that can guarantee secure supplies into it. And I think if anything as we go through this strategy and the consultation on it, we need to get over that sense of this being a national asset, this being a national security issue, this being an employment security issue, and that I think maybe changes the sense of the investment, changes some of the planning issues that we are going to face. It’s very easy when we build a road; people see: “well that road serves me because I’ll drive on it. It helps me get to the shops. It helps me get to work, or whatever”. We need to change the thinking, so that when people see the development of our transmission grid, the power lines that actually they see: “that’s my economic future, that’s my jobs, that’s money coming into my area, that’s energy being delivered, or created, in my area, powering the whole country”. That changes psychology; I think the analogy is absolutely right. This is as important as the broadband infrastructure for any region. This is more important than the roads network, I believe, for every region because the jobs of the future, the economic development of the future is going to be in energy areas and the new digital economy, and that requires electricity; and if we can change people’s thinking around that, I think it would be much easier for us to get the development we need to provide that secure economic future. I think we need to start working back both ways. We are already heading in the direction with the instruction smart meters. We can move towards auto-generation and micro-generation with the development of a whole range of new supplies where people will also see it as an economic opportunity that the grid is something that they can work with to protect their own economic future. So it is, as I said, I am very much welcome that we’re looking at theories on local/regional grid development as part of a national strategy and I look forward to the work that I know CER are going to do with Eirgrid and with the department and the generation companies interested in this area to make sure that we develop those renewable resources which are available in the regions of Ireland and develop the grid, connected together in a very synchronised manner. Lastly, if I could say, as well as being a local strategy I think also we have to recognize, as I said earlier on, that this is part of an international strategy that we’re engaged in, that we are within the EU at present engaging in very real negotiations around climate change commitments, which will require us to take radical action to cut our emissions. By inter-connection on the electricity side with the UK and the rest of continental Europe, we can actually meet those targets. We can actually trade, I believe, our electricity in a way that benefits Ireland that provides us security and fits in with an overall European framework. So I very much commend the work that Eirgrid are doing in terms of department of such inter-connection and see it as an integral part of our cooperation internationally, to meet international targets and to meet our own needs in terms of flexible available electricity supplies. This strategy sets out, I believe, an investment path which is the cornerstone of our new economy. It provides us energy security. It actually provides jobs in each local region of the country by providing the power system that creates the economic environment for that region. And it also connects us to a wider international network and developments in the energy area which is crucial. I commend Eirgrid. I commend my own department, the secretary-general who is here today, for their cooperative approach. It is through cooperation between the various state agencies that we can give our people confidence in our government, in our governments of our economy through these difficult times. That’s our business today. That’s the central key role of government; is to assure our people that, yes these are difficult times, yes these are difficult economic conditions, yes there are international and local uncertainties, but there is a way forward. There is an economic opportunity for this country. There is hope in our economy and I think it’s particularly in the area of development of our electricity grid that we can actually provide the infrastructure for that hope.