Ms May Marron:

We represent the Monaghan Anti-Pylon Committee, which was set up in 2007 in response to the proposed development of the North-South interconnector. We thank the joint committee for the invitation to appear here today.

The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Rabbitte, recently commented on the North–South interconnector as being a local row. In our submission to the then Committee on Communications, Natural Resources and Transport in 2012, we quoted from the poem "Epic" by Patrick Kavanagh.

... Till Homer’s ghost came whispering to my mind.
He said: I made the Iliad from such
A local row. Gods make their own importance.

EirGrid has now unveiled the Grid West and Grid Link south projects, and rural communities have risen up en masse to oppose the overhead nature of these developments. Despite this enormous community backlash and outcry for undergrounding, which we very much support, our position is that EirGrid intends to make a planning application early next year for a North-South overhead line. We must deal with this situation by engaging fully in the statutory planning process. Since the collapse of the oral hearing in June 2010, we continued working behind the scenes very much below the national radar. We do not have a website or a Facebook page and we leave the twittering and tweeting to the birds. We have moved far beyond the stage of holding protest rallies outside EirGrid offices. We believe that 1,500 people held a protest march in the Comeragh mountains recently, and we congratulate them on that, but we have been there, done that and got the t-shirt.

The whole country is now fully aware of the main issues with regard to pylons, but I will give a quick overview of how these issues relate to Monaghan. The first issue is the visual impact. Monaghan has a unique rolling drumlin landscape draped with small enclosed fields. Patrick Kavanagh has described Monaghan's drumlins as his Alps. Obviously, the visual impact of a pylon is far greater sitting on top of a drumlin than it is in a flat field. The County Monaghan Development Plan 2013-2019 protects this unique drumlin landscape from development causing adverse visual impact. We believe the overhead nature of the power line is totally in breach of this development plan.

Property devaluation is another issue. The power line will be totally out of scale in relation to the small fields and small farm holdings through which it is proposed to be sited. This will result in a multiplier effect with regard to property devaluation compared to other parts of the country. It will have enormous adverse effects on the farm families who may have to live and work in its shadow. In regard to tourism, contrary to EirGrid's assertion that tourism is largely irrelevant in the context of Monaghan, significant capital investment has taken place over the course of the last rural development programme for 2007 to 2013, but now some tourism projects have been put on hold as a result of the proposed line. There is now no direct or indirect benefit for the residents, farmers or businesses of County Monaghan as far as this project is concerned. In the last application there was a substation in Kingscourt which EirGrid claimed was a fundamental part of the proposal that was absolutely vital to strengthen the grid in Monaghan and the north east. This substation has now been omitted and does not form part of the proposed new application.

There is particular concern regarding the close proximity of EirGrid pylons and conductors to dwellings. EirGrid says it tries to achieve a distance of 50 metres from the centre line, if possible, but in any event they can go as close as 23 metres or 25 yards. This distance of 25 yards was set in the 1934 Electricity Amendment Act, when lines were strung on wooden poles. It is a ridiculously close distance in the context of today's massive steel pylons and 400 kV conductors. This legislation urgently needs to be reviewed.

There is nothing unique about the health issue with regard to Monaghan. EirGrid states that it operates to the highest international standards, which it quotes as being the ICNIRP guidelines. We would contend that these are not the highest international standards, but rather the lowest. Our research shows that the highest international standards can be found in the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Austria, Germany and Italy. These standards advise levels of exposure to EMFs that are up to 250 times lower than the levels used by EirGrid and are based on the principle of prudent avoidance - if in doubt, leave it out. We are also concerned by what we consider to be misleading information in EirGrid’s brochure on EMFs. In addition, there is an issue regarding the noise from electric lines and its effect on those who are autistic. This already has a real impact for families in Monaghan, and although compelling and emotional evidence was given at the oral hearing in 2010, EirGrid has not addressed the issue in any of its documents, despite the fact that it says it has taken into account all evidence given at the oral hearing.

With regard to the upcoming planning application, the Minister says three documents must be taken into account by An Bord Pleanála. The first of these is the independent expert commission, IEC, report. Despite our initial reservations regarding the terms of reference, this report adds much useful information to the debate and we have not criticised it in any shape or form. However, EirGrid does not agree with large parts of this report. It does not accept the costings, does not accept the validity of the technical conclusions and has publicly stated that the IEC was not properly briefed on the Irish transmission network and its report is incomplete. We note with concern that the IEC has not, to our knowledge, been given an opportunity to respond to EirGrid’s critique of its report. The second document to be taken into account is the Oireachtas committee report of 2012. No public comment on this has been made by EirGrid as far as we are aware. The third document is the Government energy policy document. This, obviously, is the most important of the three documents, yet even with regard to this document EirGrid selects the elements that suit it and conveniently ignores the rest.

With regard to the debate on the comparative costs of an underground versus overhead line, the previous Oireachtas committee could make no decision on the comparative overall costs, as no cost-benefit analysis had been carried out. We feel it is imperative that a cost-benefit analysis be carried out immediately by independent experts. The east–west interconnector has just been named as the best engineering project of the year and we congratulate EirGrid on this project. The cable is 264 km in length and while we think of it as being under the sea, approximately 70 km of underground cable has been laid in Ireland and Wales. The whole scheme came in on time and within budget at a cost of €600 million. It uses the latest high-voltage direct current/voltage source converter, HVDC-VSC, technology in two convertor stations. With regard to the direct cost of putting the North–South interconnector underground, EirGrid must now know exactly what that cost would be. We suspect that the true cost of undergrounding the North–South interconnector is a lot less than three times the overhead cost. Otherwise, EirGrid would not be slow to put these costs into the public domain.

As EirGrid was clearly incapable of organising a consultation process in County Monaghan, Monaghan Anti-Pylon Committee organised three consultation events in local community centres in the affected areas in order to facilitate EirGrid. More than 600 people attended these events, but yet again the genuine concerns presented to EirGrid were dismissed and relegated to an appendix in its final report, which was swiftly published a few short weeks later.

This final document was obviously ready to go, regardless of any consultation. EirGrid states that these concerns are best left to be dealt with by the environmental impact statement. We strongly disagree because that is a recipe for serious conflict in the future. In addition, the landowners are very angry about the change-request tactic used by EirGrid in an attempt to gain access to lands for survey purposes and the divisive nature of conditions imposed on them in this regard.

EirGrid has failed to consult in a meaningful manner with landowners and residents. It is quite clear that the affected landowners and communities in County Monaghan have lost all confidence in EirGrid to deliver this project in a sustainable manner. This was recently made evident when the 20 elected members of Monaghan County Council unanimously passed a motion of no confidence in EirGrid. We believe that EirGrid's public consultation may be in breach of Article 6.4 of the Aarhus Convention, which requires that public participation take place early in decision making when all options are open. Public participation may not be pro forma.

In the aftermath of An Bord Pleanála's refusal of planning permission for the new children’s hospital, the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Rabbitte, stated that the planning laws needed "finessing". We may be facing into another oral hearing next year. It is a very arduous, time-consuming and expensive process and we would like to think we will be playing on a level pitch. We look to the committee to ensure that we will get fair play.

The local row has been going on for six years. The Iliadhas just commenced and according to Homer it lasted ten years. Mr. Bannigan and Mr. Hillis will be happy to answer any questions members wish to pose.