merrion street

I am delighted to be able to welcome you all to my home county as we join Eirgrid here today for the launch of the Grid West project.

As you should all know by now Mayo is a county that produces a lot of energy, whether it’s the wind or its people, both are forces to be reckoned with!

And as everyone else knows Mayo and the rest of the western region has not been immune to the current downturn or indeed to past recessions.

Just up the road near the village of Bangor Erris is a statue called the ‘Crying Stone’. It’s depicts a woman and her child waving goodbye to her lost family members as they head east towards Dublin and out of Ireland.

The spectre of forced emigration has once again returned to our shores with new generations of our sons and daughters looking further afield for jobs and opportunities.

This is why getting Ireland back to work is the top priority for this Government.

Getting people off the dole queues and into jobs will breath new life into the regions, the towns and villages, it’ll restore a sense of pride and dignity to many, and it’ll even help drive down the Government’s deficit.

This is why job creation has remained at the top of Government’s priority action list. Recent weeks has seen the Government launch two new plans. The Action Plan on Jobs which when implemented will encourage more employers to hire more people, and the Pathways to Work plan to overhaul how the State supports unemployed people to ensure they are given every opportunity to get back into the workplace.

These plans involve huge changes across the public service and we are 100% focused on delivering on them.

Recent weeks has seen a series of new job announcements from many multinational companies based in Ireland.

This is a direct result on the supportive and stable business environment Ireland provides to these companies. They now employ over 250,000 people in Ireland and are responsible for 70% of our exports.

As job opportunities for the west go, I have been talking about the potential of the western region to produce renewable Irish energy for many years.

The west of Ireland has unparalleled quality of wave and wind resources when compared to the rest of Europe. Many of our European neighbours would give anything to have the type of natural resources we have here on the Atlantic seaboard.

It is only in the past few years as the cost of onshore wind energy has come down that the vision of the west of Ireland acting as the powerhouse of Ireland has become possible.

Energy policy and development has a pivotal role to play in creating the conditions for an economic recovery and for the job creation we need.

Like any household, every business requires access to an affordable and dependable energy supply.

Ensuring secure, reliable and safe supplies of electricity, and protecting ourselves from fuel shocks will be critical to Ireland’s ability to attract inward investment and retain and create jobs.

This will require investment in carefully planned new energy infrastructure along the west coast.

And it will require the new ‘motorway’ electricity networks that will send power to where it’s in demand.

In the future this may even include the UK and further afield and we work to create an export market for our renewable energy.

This was a topic of discussion I had in Downing Street recently with Prime Minister Cameron and we agreed to work together to explore the possibilities of renewable energy exports.

All this takes us to why we are here today. The Grid West Project is about getting energy produced in the west onto the national grid, and in return delivering secure and stable supplies of electricity into the west.

It is a key initiative under EirGrid’s Grid25 transmission development strategy, and will involve an initial €240 million euro investment over the next several years in this region.

The project will facilitate both conventional generation and renewable energy projects, and will bring 21st century energy infrastructure to the West of Ireland.

The Grid West Project will enable a secure supply of electricity for the region well into the future. A vital component for new business expansion into the area.

We are only launching the public consultation phase today. No decisions have been made on the routes of lines or on the location of substations yet.

As this project moves forward EirGrid is committed to extensive and thorough public consultation and I understand that today they are launching a comprehensive process which will involve opening regional information centres.

I would encourage members of the public and stakeholders alike to participate in that process… To work together in good faith so that we can deliver the type of major investment that the west needs.

I firmly believe that the will and understanding of the Irish people will help us on our course to economic recovery. That by working together in an atmosphere of respect we can get things done for the benefit of the whole country.

Today sees a only the start of a key project that will open up the possibilities of new investment and jobs in the wind energy, and will ensure future electricity demand in the region can be met and support new businesses in the northwest.

The Government wants to be able to give a strong and consistent message to new and existing investors that Ireland is open for business.

Thank you.