Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This is the most important issue in the mid-Laois area at the moment. It is a flagrant breach of the planning code by a State company. It has a controversial history. EirGrid started work without having a construction management plan or a commencement notice from the planning authority, which is the local authority, Laois County Council. It started work on it around 17 April. It met the county council on 24 April and was told to cease. It kept working away and bulldozed ahead. It was served with a warning letter from Laois County Council on 30 May, but not the urgent enforcement notice that should have been served on it at the time.

My information is that the environmental impact statement on this project has not been completed. It is sited on a very sensitive aquifer, but An Bord Pleanála, if our information is correct, gave the go-ahead for this project against the advise of the National Parks and Wildlife Service. That has to be clarified. EirGrid cannot go in and recommence this work. Huge work has been carried out already, riding roughshod over the local community.

I met the management of EirGrid last week and put it to them that they had an appalling record on Ratheniska and the valley between Slieve Margy and the Rock of Dunamase and the hills on the other side. It has not been upfront with the local people of Ratheniska and Timahoe. I have requested that it informs us immediately of the full extent of what is planned in that area. It has broken the law and disregarded the planning process. We do not normally raise these things in the Chamber as they are usually left to the planners but the planning process on this project is in tatters. This is a publically owned semi-State company. The Minister is the shareholder. He cannot be a spectator on this and he must hold EirGrid to account. We need accountability from An Bord Pleanála and from EirGrid on this matter.

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