Sarah O'Reilly (Aontú)

I raise the issue of the North-South interconnector being delayed again until 2031. The real problem is this project does not have the support of the locals affected because of the continued refusal by the Government to even review the possibility of undergrounding this project. The Government could have saved an awful lot of hassle, annoyance and money by working with the people and listening to them. We can see from previous storms how vulnerable our infrastructure is. We should be future-proofing infrastructure by putting the interconnector underground. The recent Supreme Court ruling has big implications for the North-South interconnector. The court decided that landowners could be compensated not just for the exact bit of land where the pylons would stand but for any drop in value to all of their land caused by the power lines. This means the ESB may now have to pay far more in compensation to hundreds of farmers along the route. It could delay the project even further. The case taken by the O'Reilly family in Cavan has effectively opened the door for landowners to receive proper, fair compensation for the real impact these pylons have on their farms and homes. Rural communities are told to put up with whatever is cheapest for the State even when international evidence shows undergrounding is viable, reliable and often more durable in the long run. If the State continues to push ahead with reviewing the possibility of undergrounding, it will show it is not listening to the people in Cavan, Monaghan, Meath, Armagh or Tyrone. Just this morning, Aontú received a response to a parliamentary question that the Minister would not answer a question on how many landowners had signed up to the project, stating it was a matter for EirGrid. This response from a Minister is not acceptable. There should be a debate in this House on the matter.