Consultation on €500m pylon plan is a joke, says community group

A community group in north Cork has criticised Eirgrid’s public consultation process around the €500m pylon project from Cork to Wexford to Kildare as “just being about ticking boxes for the planning process”.

Eirgrid say the powerline must be upgraded to 400KV “to ensure a reliable and high-quality electricity supply for homes, farms and businesses into the future”.

But Knockraha Community Association argued “the main driving force behind the proposed projects is the sale of power generated in Ireland to the UK and Europe” and not security of supply to local homes and farms.

According to spokeswoman, Noelle Murphy, the ESB and Bord Gáis’s power plants at Aghada are running at less than 50% capacity and the “main purpose for the new 400KV powerlines is to provide a conduit for the sale of the power outside of Ireland via the interconnector between Woodland and Shotton”.

She said the public consultation process is “a joke”.

“All the publications, leaflets and public information meetings are about ticking boxes to ensure that the project will obtain planning permission. The school and local residents have not been given proper information about the Eirgrid plans,” said Ms Murphy.

The association has asked Eirgrid for precise details on the physical size of the proposed pylons, their height, base length and width and the number of cables on each, and detail on the proposed distance between the proposed pylons/cables and existing domestic and populated buildings, gardens and public areas.

An Eirgrid spokeswoman yesterday said “this project is at a very early stage in the process where corridor options have been identified, but no decisions have been made regarding routes or substation sites”.

Earlier this week, Eirgrid announced it is to extend the public consultation period on the plan until Jan 7.

I welcome the decision of Eirgrid to extend the period of public consultation on pylons until January 7th. At last someone's listening !

— Charlie Flanagan (@CharlieFlanagan) November 25, 2013

* A public meeting on the Knockraha end of the project will take place at the community hall next Wednesday.