Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to be able to speak to this important motion. It is welcome thethat Fianna Fáil has tabled it. While the Minister has left, it is welcome that he met the communities involved. He is first Minister to do so since An Teachta Eamon Ryan. That is a help at least.

The one part of the Minister's contribution to which I object is that relating to Brexit. I know that Brexit is very serious. The House will debate the matter tomorrow. This is the latest reason he has given us for big people getting richer and fat cats getting fatter, and to hell with the communities. He will be blaming something else next week. It is outrageous. Figures were supplied to me two years ago which showed that EirGrid blew €2.7 million on legal fees while fighting communities. Just imagine, people in communities are trying to survive, do everyday chores, pay mortgages, educates their families and eke out a living in farming, yet €2.7 million was spent on legal fees. I would love to know where the legal eagles are. It was the same tonight when we discussed the tribunal - another gravy train for the fat cats. When are we going to cop on and say "Stop"?

I have no faith in EirGrid. I have dealt with the company in the south-east where it is trying to wreck our lovely county of Tipperary, across the hills of Aghda, from Cahir, Clonmel and Kilsheelan, to the scenic Slievenamon and into Ahenny in south Kilkenny. EirGrid has shown disrespect to those communities. There is a disconnect because its people fly into the area in helicopters or drive in for big open days at hotels. Instead, they should take off their suits, get on their wellies and meet people in their homes, which will be 25 m away from electricity lines in the future. Why would anyone want them? We heard such stories earlier from Deputy Ó Caoláin and I have heard such concerns also. EirGrid should get out and meet the people.

I have less faith in An Bord Pleanála following the lovely Christmas box they gave to EirGrid on 20 December. It was almost Christmas Eve when they said "Off you go. Reap the money, while there is some left, and plunder Ireland." It is something similar to what Cromwell did. I have less faith when we saw a gentleman retired from An Bord Pleanála being made the head of EirGrid. That is disgusting. Can the Government not see it? I asked the Taoiseach earlier if he could not hear. There are none so blind as those who do not want to see. It is big business, with people moving from An Bord Pleanála. In the first instance, they left the county councils for An Bord Pleanála and then moved again - without any two-year moratorium - straight into EirGrid. They know every nook and cranny, including how and what to submit to An Bord Pleanála. That is what is wrong with this country. It stinks to high heaven. It is corrupt. If it walks like a duck and looks like a duck, it is a duck - so let us call it a duck.

I cannot believe the impact that there will be on families and livestock. I include the equine sector in this regard. The Government is not listening. The people in America were not listening either when the media wrote him off and now we have President Donald Trump. We also have Brexit because the British people and the Eurocrats would not listen. They will not listen to anybody except big money. We have it here every day of the week. We had two or three Bills last week whereby we tried to curtail the impact of the media, of what is happening in the equine industry in Tipperary and of what is going on in Tesco, with staff going on strike.

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It is big and powerful and to hell with the ordinary people. Last year we celebrated the events of 1916. The people are revolving in their graves so fast now that it is unbelievable. Monopolies are what count. The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission might as well be the three good Ministers of State opposite me. It is useless, toothless and fruitless. It does not do anything. It does not listen to people who are told the resources are not there. Why would it listen when its masters who appoint people to boards do not want to listen? It is big business. It was there under Fianna Fáil, it was there under the last Government and it is there now. The ordinary people have to rise up. They must get out of their beds, do their work and fight these campaigns where that kind of money is pumped to legal eagles and PR. We see brochure after brochure.

Someone said €39 million had been spent already on planning for the overhead cables. We know they are a danger to light aircraft and at risk of being blown down in storms. Flocks of birds, including geese and swans, regularly hit overhead pylons. Why will the Government not listen? We were able to do it in Howth and underground across from Ireland to England. Under the last Government, the Department got an award for its expertise in being able to do the underground connector across the Irish Sea. Here it is, however, telling the people what it wants. It was to hell or to Connacht with Cromwell. The PSO levy is going up and up. To the ordinary person it feels like penal servitude or else. The ordinary people who are objecting to this are to be made to pay to subsidise these fat cats. It is sickening in the extreme.

I appeal to the Ministers of State. Some of them were very vocal in the last Government and in opposition six years ago against this proposal. Now that they are in government, they want to get in with the fat cats and get on the roller coaster. The Minister of State can smile all he likes, but that is the fact of it. I have been consistent in opposing this since I came in here and these proposals were mooted. Like Deputy Fitzmaurice, I have experience of construction and I know it can be done underground. In fact, the motorways should have had ducts when they were built but that would be forward thinking and there would be no more money.

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