Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Removing them from that environment will be a massive operation.

I was glad Senator Kyne said local opinion is with us on this. It was suggested at the time that some environmentalists locally were wholly opposed to this. Possibly there were a few but we spoke to local people from the community when we visited Derrybrien and were satisfied the people of Derrybrien were with us and wanted that installation kept. Not the noisy couple of sandal-wearers who may or may not have written a few letters of protest, but the genuine people in the locality wanted this facility kept.

What happens now? As Senator Mullen suggested, why not go to Brussels and say it does not make sense to knock this down and wreck the environment a second time in order to undo what has happened? We could go on our knees and say we made a bags of this, should not have allowed the ESB to procrastinate for two decades on the matter and should have done something sooner. The Government should apologise for that but please, let common sense re-assert itself and let this valuable piece of national infrastructure be kept in place, rather than destroyed in an act of "Alice in Wonderland" nonsense on stilts. I am sorry the Minister of State is rejecting this legislation but when the damage is done on the top of that mountain again, this Government will be responsible for it and nobody else.