Mr. Terry Lynch:

I would like to respond on a personal level. I thank the Chairman and members for all the questions they posed and comments they made.

My father worked as a member of Dublin Fire Brigade for 35 years and was stationed not far from here in Tara Street. When he retired, he returned to his homeland in Cavan. He built a house there on land which my grandfather bought for the family. In the past a plantation house stood on the land and there was a hospital located there during the Famine. There are rumours that bodies were buried on the land during the Famine era. It is an elevated site which is very beautiful. My father spent his retirement fund maintaining that beauty. He went to great expense to maintain both the hospital to which I refer and the sheds used by the labourers who used to work on the farm. He also spent a huge amount of money integrating the farm, putting in place slatted sheds and reseeding the land in order that he might make it a viable enterprise he could pass on to his sons. EirGrid is now going to erect pylon No. 190 on an elevated site directly behind and above the house. The pylon will be visible for miles around and will probably be the area's most distinguishing feature. It will scar and ruin what my father has spent his time doing since he retired.

I will provide the committee with an example of what EirGrid considers to be consultation. We discovered that the company plans to use our personal driveway in order to facilitate the putting in place of 100 m of additional road to service the site. EirGrid did not inform us that this would be the case. We obtained the relevant information from An Bord Pleanála when the planning application was released, either by mistake or by design. It was in this way that we discovered what the company intends to do. That is EirGrid's idea of consultation. However, consultation means meeting people, listening to what they have to say, taking their concerns on board and then using them to shape progress. That is all we are seeking but none of it has happened. We do not want to stop progress, regardless of whether there are reservations about windmills or anything of that nature. We are small businessmen and we recognise that any improvements will be to our benefit. We do not want to stop the project but we do want the methods currently being used in respect of it to be discontinued, particularly as they are leading to what we have being destroyed.

Representatives from EirGrid referred last week to an additional cost of €500 million. What about the additional cost to my father and me? Ours is just one of 115 families involved. We are talking here about 115 homes, 115 histories and 115 futures. The homes of those 115 families, all of whom live on the proposed route through Monaghan, are going to be affected, as are their futures. Is it fair that we should bear the burden of an indefinite cost, namely, that brought about by the devaluation of our homes? Is it fair that our ability to borrow against the value of our properties should be affected?

My brother had a child recently. He is doing well now but he had to undergo open heart surgery and have a pacemaker fitted almost immediately after he was born. My father is concerned about whether he should allow his grandson to visit if the plan to erect a pylon behind his house proceeds. He is not a man who is given to believe in false science but he is concerned. It is that type of concern which leads to property devaluation and to something for which one has worked no longer being one's home.