North South Interconnector Faces Years of Opposition if its Not Undergrounded. - Tóibín
Aontú Leader and Meath West TD Peadar Tóibín has called on the government to do the right thing by communities and underground the North South Interconnector now. Speaking after the latest report published its findings An Teachta Tóibín stated;
“Aontú support a North South Interconnector and an All Ireland energy market but most importantly we only support it if its undergrounded. The southern government and the administration in the north seek to construct 409 pylons, up to 51 metres high, caring 400,000 volts through Meath, Cavan and Monaghan, Armagh and Tyrone. Shockingly there will be a minimum distance of 13 metres to homes allowed”.
“There are significant real fears with regards threats to health. There are fears with regards damage to value of homes, farms and business. The tourism, agriculture, the blood stock industry will all be significantly affected”.
“97% of landowners, law abiding citizens, have said that they will oppose Eirgrid coming on to their land and building this interconnector. So despite 15 years and millions of euro spent the policy of the government to ignore the will of the people puts the whole project at an impasse”.
“This latest report cannot claim to be independent. Its remit was to study Eirgrid’s conclusions and recommendations. Eirgrid ruled out undergrounding from 2007. This report did not accept any submissions from anyone in the communities along the curtilage”.
“Interestingly the report states that complexity of undergrounding “can now be managed”. Indeed the report points to a large number of projects all over Europe that are now using this exact technology. Eirgrid themselves are looking to underground a similar project between Meath and Kildare. Their approach to this project is significantly different to the North South Interconnector. In this project they are accepting a full cost benefit analysis including the shocking impact on the communities along the line of the project”.
The Government and the administration in the north must now listen to the people and underground this project.
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