‘Please bury the cables underground’, begs mother

A WEST CORK mother yesterday pleaded with ESB Networks not to erect overhead cables, linking a private wind farm, near her home.

“For my children’s sake,” said Bantry mother Margo Daly, “please bury the cables underground.”

She joined members of the Bantry Concerned Action Group at a protest outside one of the ESB administrative bases in Dublin.

“We just feel powerless, we feel we don’t have a voice anymore,” said the mother-of-five. “The ESB and the private developer are going to do what they want. All I want, for my children’s sake, is for the cables to be buried.”

The group joined with other protesters from Roscommon and parts of county Dublin in objecting to a number of ESB schemes, which residents warned presented a risk to public health and safety.

Waving placards with a blunt message, “Bury the Lines, Not our Children”, the group handed in a letter of protest.

Joe Burke, who heads the Bantry group, reiterated that up to 40 neighbouring landowners were not opposed to the development of the wind farm at Dromourneen, near Bantry.

“Our sole concern is health and especially the risks to our children of high or even medium voltage overhead lines running close to family homes. We have given both the private developer and ESB the option of putting the cables underground, but they are refusing point blank. We will resist any attempts by ESB crews to enter our lands to erect the poles and pylons. We will keep them out and will go to jail, if necessary.”

His neighbour Mrs Daly said: “We cannot understand why they will not accept the alternative option. It’s all about money, of course.”

Mr Burke said the Roscommon protestors contacted his group after Bantry landowners highlighted their case before an Oireachtas sub-committee.

An ESB spokesperson said yesterday: “We have a duty to our client to erect the cables... the Bantry matter was already determined by the county council and Bord Pleanala.”