Ms Helena Fitzgerald:

Thank you for inviting me here today. I am from Borris in County Carlow and I am speaking on behalf of the Save our Heartland group. The map on page 6 of my written submission, which many committee members will have seen, is a map of primary constraints prepared by EirGrid in its route identification process. We believe this map is fundamentally flawed in how it depicts landscape value in Ireland. The red areas on this map are primary constraints to be avoided if possible in route identification, while the light-coloured areas are okay for pylons.

There is no whole-island map of landscape value. EirGrid has subjective and inconsistent information on landscape value from each local authority. Carlow appears on the map as a totally unconstrained landscape. There are no primary constraints in our Carlow development plan. All four pylon routes pass through the small county of Carlow, and, most significantly, two of the pylon routes pass just beside the monastic settlement of St. Mullins and through the beautiful and historic designed landscape of Borris House. On the next map, we can see areas of landscape constraints stopping at county boundaries, so because Kilkenny is an area of constraint and is to be avoided if possible by EirGrid, the landscape value stops at the River Barrow. How can landscape value stop at a river?

In 2002, Ireland ratified the European Landscape Convention. This places obligations on the Irish Government to protect, manage and plan the landscapes of Ireland hand in hand with the communities that inhabit those landscapes. We believe the Government has failed to comply with Article 6 of the European Landscape Convention in the case of County Carlow, as critical cultural and historical elements of importance to the people of Carlow and the nation have not been identified, assessed and protected. Eleven and a half years after Ireland signed and ratified the European Landscape Convention, we still do not have a national landscape strategy. We do not even have statutory guidelines for local authorities to help them map landscapes more consistently.

We have three questions that we would like the committee to consider. How can the Grid Link project have progressed to this stage with such a fundamental flaw in its mapping of landscape value? Will the absence of a consistent all-island landscape map allow for proper planning and sustainable development in the strategic infrastructure process, executed in the common good? Is the identification and protection of scenic landscapes, which Ireland is obliged to do under the European Landscape Convention, not also in the common good? Thank you for your time.