Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for coming to the House. I am pleased to see him in good health. Sinn Féin is happy to support the Private Members' motion that has been proposed this afternoon. We have stood with the communities affected by this scheme since the beginning. In 2014, we passed a strong motion at our Ard-Fheis calling on EirGrid to put the cables underground. Residents along the proposed route will be faced with pylons of 45 m in height, some of which will be 50 m from their homes. While we absolutely support the development of the interconnector, we also support the right of residents to oppose these massive pylons, 229 of which will pass through counties Meath, Cavan, Monaghan, Tyrone and Armagh carrying 400 kV of power. EirGrid has failed to deal in a meaningful manner with the concerns of affected residents. Its initial claim that putting the lines underground would cost 25 times more than placing them overground is false. In fact, undergrounding was just 1.5 times as expensive at the time and this differential has probably reduced since the report was published.

I was a member of Mayo County Council when a representative of EirGrid appeared before it some years ago. I asked him on several occasions about the feasibility of putting lines underground. I wanted to know whether it was technically possible. He tried to fob me off with references to physics, but I told him to let me have a look at the physics so I could decipher it for myself. I said that what we were discussing was either feasible or it was not, taking the cost off the board. I am reluctant to say he told lies time and again during that presentation, but it has since been proven that he told lies. I do not like to call anybody a liar, but that is exactly what transpired at the presentation. If EirGrid had not taken such an approach, my colleagues and I would not be talking on this issue in the Seanad this afternoon. If EirGrid had come clean and told the truth from the outset, we could have worked with that. I presented international models of best practice at the time. Even at that time, there was a move towards the undergrounding of lines that were originally developed overground. Has EirGrid been reprimanded for telling lies to communities and public representatives in all of this?