Labour Senator Denis Landy has this week called on Eirgrid to urgently review their proposals to spend 4bn Euros of taxpayers money expanding the transmission network in light of the withdrawal by Britain from discussions on an Inter-Governmental Agreement with Ireland to purchase energy created by wind energy in Ireland.

Eirgrid proposals entails the build out of 400kv lines from Cork to Wexford to Kildare, from Meath to Northern Ireland, and from Roscommon to Mayo. It has been a long held belief by many including Senator Landy that these pylons would ultimately act as the conduit for the export of wind energy from all parts of the country.

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Mr Landy said: "We now have a situation where the network requirement has completely changed and therefore, the proposal by Eirgrid to spend €4bn of taxpayers’ money that will effectively have nothing to transmit has to be stopped immediately. I have consistently called for an Energy Forum to be established to assess the energy needs and the transmission needs for this country. This is more urgent now than ever in the aftermath of Britain’s withdrawal from the Inter-Governmental Agreement."

(CD/MH)