Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for being present for this important debate. I also welcome the members of Monaghan County Council. They have been very much to the forefront in leading the charge on this issue. I indicate my total objection to this proposed development in its current form of overhead power lines. The people of my constituency of Cavan-Monaghan and our neighbours in Meath want this project to be undergrounded. Some 2,500 homes have the potential to be impacted in a negative way by the proposed overhead line. Do their concerns deserve to be listened to? Yes, they do. Poor consultation has led today's debate on the planning process for the North-South interconnector. It is time to put right the wrongs of the past and take away the sour taste of this project that has been left in the mouths of the people of Cavan-Monaghan. I ask the Minister not to railroad this through.

I accept the need for a North-South interconnector but clearly and vehemently disagree with both the scale of the proposal and the choice of overhead transmission lines instead of underground cables. I have been informed through parliamentary questions on this issue. The Minister and I have previously debated in the Chamber the subject of Brexit and the impact it could have on the North-South interconnector. I have been informed it will have no impact. It is unfair to state the implications of Brexit will have no effect because we honestly have not realised the full impact that Brexit will have on the South of Ireland. No one knows what is in store for the country. Therefore, I ask the Minister again to be prudent and to put all State funding for the capital phase of this project on hold. The Minister should remind EirGrid that despite receiving the green light from An Bord Pleanála in the South, the development of the project depends on the outcome of the public inquiry in Northern Ireland, which is scheduled for this month.

EirGrid has agreed that undergrounding is indeed feasible and reliable. It is on that premise that I urge the Government to reject the application in its current status. It could be argued that the money spent to date on blunders in planning and opposition to this project could have gone a long way to paying for the undergrounding option.

The people of my constituency have many concerns, none of which has been addressed adequately by EirGrid to give them peace of mind. The application does not have the basic principle of public acceptance in place and therefore cannot go ahead in its current form.

The people of Cavan and Monaghan have been offered only lip service, and when we look at the stringent consultation protocols of the project being tested in the North of Ireland, we deserve the same here.

Early last year I attended the An Bord Pleanála oral hearing in the Nuremore Hotel in Carrickmacross for hours - some people attended for days on end - and heard at first hand the logical reasons people in those areas do not want this project to go ahead. It is not an overstatement to say the landowners are distraught for reasons of health, devaluation of land, the impact on their livelihood, the destruction of heritage, flora and fauna, and the detrimental impact on tourism.

Last month we attended the meeting in Kells, County Meath. It is not an overstatement to say it was attended by hundreds of people. The Monaghan anti-pylon group and the North East Pylon Pressure Campaign have been to the forefront and have given the Minister a very clear presentation, as my colleague outlined, of the reason this project should not go ahead.

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