Electricity Grid Dail Éireann — 2026-02-24 ============================================================ Pa Daly (SF), Kerry Is the Minister going to ensure that the North-South interconnector will be underground? That is the fundamental issue for people who live in Border communities. On the basis of what he said, is the Minister guaranteeing that there will be no new costs passed on to consumers as a result of the private wires legislation? Consumers cannot afford any new costs. There is a concern to the effect that the private wires legislation will undermine climate obligations by diverting energy. We have seen in the past few years the increase from wind and the new energy coming onto the system, but it is all being gobbled up by the data centres and other large energy users. A fundamental concern is that this will continue despite all the efforts the Government and people are making in the context of onshore and offshore energy. One Minister even admitted that the Government has been sitting on its hands and navel gazing when it comes to offshore wind. We do not want that to happen. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-24/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:40+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-02-24