No Eirgrid, no encore

Though I am not a historian, I do believe that we should learn from the mistakes of our past. George Bush in his own eloquent way, once attempted to say, ‘Fool me once — shame on you. Fool me twice — shame on me’.

While contemplating this, I was struck by the similarities between recession Ireland of the late noughties and plans by present-day Eirgrid.

During the boom times there were hundreds of housing estates built. Eirgrid want to build hundreds of pylons.

People do not want to live in ghost estates. People do not want to live beside pylons. People cannot sell their homes in ghost estates and are in negative equity. People will be unable to sell their homes beside pylons and will be in the same situation as those in ghost estates.

The ghost estates were built by developers who got loans from the banks. Eirgrid will get loans from Europe.

The taxpayers took the fall for the banks. Who will take the fall for Eirgrid?

Another George, George Santayana, once said, ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it’. Recession Ireland is a very clear memory in the minds of the people of Ireland and no-one would like a repeat performance.

Ann-Marie Lineen

Lismore

Co Waterford