Keith Swanick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister, Deputy Naughten to the House. I support this motion and I commend my colleagues Senators Gallagher and Wilson on calling for an independent expert review. I also welcome to the House Councillor Clifford Kelly who has been a long-term campaigner on this issue, as well as Deputy Cassells. I have spoken today to a councillor of more 33 years' experience from the region. He informed me that he has never seen such resolve by the public over one issue. It is his opinion, and I would have to concur with him, that any potential savings by placing these cables overground will be usurped through a lengthy legal battle in the courts and possibly in the EU courts. When we talk about costs it is also worth considering that €8 million was wasted on a flawed planning application three years ago, which was withdrawn at hearing stage. The current planning application by EirGrid to place cables overground may also be flawed as only 30% of the route was actually surveyed and 17% of the route was inaccessible. Obviously there are potential and widespread inaccuracies in this which could have subsequent cost implications.

In 2014, the then Minister for Health, our colleague, Senator James Reilly, decided to inquire about the potential health effects on people who are living in close proximity to high voltage overground power cables. By doing so he made the point that people feel a deep unease about living next to major electromagnetic fields. There have been claims and counter-claims about various illnesses that can be attributed to living close to electricity pylons. As a GP, I can honestly say that if a patient who has attended my clinic for many years suddenly found themselves the unwilling neighbour of a 50 m high pylon and complained of symptoms they never had before, then I would wonder if there was a direct link. Scientific efforts to analyse electromagnetic fields around pylons and their possible relationship to cancer and other diseases began as far back as the 1970s, instigated in the US by reports of increased numbers of children with leukaemia who lived in the vicinity of power lines. Professor Denis Henshaw, the British physicist and professor of human radiation effects at Bristol University, has listed the increased possible health risks of living close to power lines such as childhood leukaemia, adult leukaemia, Alzheimer's disease, brain tumours, depression and many other illnesses. The EirGrid chief executive at the time, John O'Connor, did little to calm fears when he admitted, before an Oireachtas committee in 2013, that he would not like to live close to a pylon. EirGrid dismisses these concerns and insists there is no evidence to support them. It may not have been proved but that does not mean it does not exist. Professor Anthony Staines, chair of health systems in the School of Nursing and Human Sciences at Dublin City University has said that there is simply not enough certainty. I for one would not like to take the risk.