Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

It is an outrage that a 65 year old woman, Teresa Treacy, has been languishing in jail for several weeks because of the ESB's bullying and determination to run overhead power transmission lines through a farm and forest land that she has nurtured and given much of her life to developing. All she is asking, as she has made clear to the ESB for several years, is that the lines be placed underground. It can be done and has often been done in many other places throughout Europe. The lines are simply placed in a trench. There would be less damage to the environment and fewer health and safety implications for people living in the vicinity. It would solve the problem.

The only excuse being provided by EirGrid and the ESB is the cost. I have two points to make in that regard. First, Teresa Treacy has agreed to waive the compensation to which she is entitled for having the power lines run through her land. Second, why does the CEO who I believe earns about €800,000 a year not cut his salary by, say, €200,000, to cover the cost of placing the lines underground, where they should be?

This is a fully State-owned company. I ask the Minister, Deputy Rabbitte, to intervene to get this women out of jail immediately. I asked the Department of Justice and Equality on Thursday last week whether members of United Left Alliance could visit Teresa Treacy in Mountjoy Prison, but we have been given the runaround for almost one week. Will the Minister assure us that we can get into the prison to visit her?

See this speech in context