Report backs underwater ESB cables

A MAJOR review of ESB plans to increase power supplies in Cork Harbour has rubbished claims that running underwater cables would cost 7.5 times the cost of erecting pylons.

The report says the underwater crossing could be installed for just three times the price of pylons. The gap is narrowed even further when the cost to the ESB of land acquisition and compensation to landowners, should it choose the overland route, is taken into account.

Anti-pylon activists have hailed the report, by Seattle-based consultants RW Beck, as a vindication of their 10-year battle to prevent the ESB erecting 84 pylons over 26km of the lower harbour area.