Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We in Sinn Féin support a North-South interconnector and an all-Ireland energy market. Most importantly, however, we only support it if it is undergrounded. Shockingly, the Government plans to overground it. Fine Gael and the Independents seek to construct 409 pylons, some of them up to 51 m high, carrying 400,000 V through Meath, Cavan, Monaghan, Armagh and Tyrone. Some will be constructed at a minimum distance of 13 m from people's houses. There are significant fears regarding threats to health as well as the value of homes, farms, and businesses. Tourism, agriculture and the bloodstock industry will all be affected.

The truth is that the technology the Government is seeking to build is becoming increasingly out of date. It is being superseded by new underground technology that is being rolled out elsewhere in the world. EirGrid itself has conceded that it can be done. We also know that the price of undergrounding is falling all the time. The fact is that EirGrid has pig-headedly forced through a particular version of the interconnector. This has actually slowed down the delivery of the infrastructure. It is ten years on the go and still without a shovel going into the ground.

There is another crisis arising. EirGrid has stated that it has access to the land to build the pylons but, lo and behold, An Bord Pleanála has not approved access for EirGrid to the lands to build the pylons. It is not included in the planning permission that has been received by EirGrid. An Bord Pleanála has not approved any one of the 584 access routes required on the lands. That is very significant. There are 400 landowners along the route of the interconnector, 97% of whom have said that EirGrid will not be allowed on the land.

If EirGrid accessed the land without agreement of the farmer, it is my understanding that it would be breaching An Bord Pleanála's permission. Is this something new? Is the Minister aware of EirGrid breaching An Bord Pleanála's permissions before, in County Laois, for example? What is to happen when EirGrid breaches these permissions? Is the Minister going to stand idly by and allow that to happen?

Legally, it is EirGrid's duty to get an agreement on an access route, which should be achieved between the farmer and the council. Is this going to happen? How is EirGrid going to gain access to the land if it does not have planning permission for access? That is a serious conundrum that could leave the Minister, Deputy Naughten, with another massive problem within the space of a couple of weeks.

Has the Government factored in the cost of dealing with this problem and has it factored in the cost of dealing with the lack of co-operation from farmers? We hear from the Minister, Deputy Regina "Che Guevara" Doherty, that there is going to be potential for civil disobedience along the route and that she herself is going to take to the barricades and defend the farmers. If she showed the same level of energy and enthusiasm defending farmers at the Cabinet table or in the Dáil Chamber, we would all welcome it. What is the Minister going to do if we get to this point?

The farmers along the routes are decent, law-abiding people. It is not in their wildest dreams to seek to come into conflict with the Government. However, there is a danger that the Minister is sleepwalking into a Shell to Sea situation, except far worse; Shell to Sea was in a couple of townlands in one corner of one county. This is going to happen along the whole route, in Meath, Cavan, Monaghan, Armagh and Tyrone. How is EirGrid going to gain access to the land when it does not have permission to do so? Has the Government costed the opposition to this?

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