Eirgrid accused of ‘provoking’ conflict with landowners over pylon purchase

ESB networks will start the purchase of 400 pylon towers for the North South Interconnector before the end of the year sparking an angry response from campaigners against the project.

The company is also starting the procurement process for construction contractors for the controversial pylon scheme.

The North East Pylon Pressure (NEPPC) Group has accused Eirgrid of having a “destructive policy of deliberately provoking a bitter conflict situation with respected landowners and communities.”

The interconnector will be constructed by ESB Networks while Eirgrid carries out the long-term planning of the transmission system.

The North East Pylon Pressure Campaign has pointed out that the nine strict planning conditions attached to the planning approval in 2016 “have not been advanced one inch in the last four years.”

“One of the conditions specifically requires sign-off on all 584 access routes onto farmer’s lands as the planning approval is for construction only, but not for access,” says NEPPC spokesman, Padraig O'Reilly who pointed out there is no agreement from landowners.

“Most of the conditions require sign-off from all three planning authorities – Meath, Cavan and Monaghan – prior to the commencement of development.

“The current Government is turning a blind eye to major multi-million Euro procurement contracts being progressed without due governance, where none of the nine strict planning conditions have been approved prior to the commencement of development.

“The procurement exposes the Fianna Fáil pre-election public commitments regarding halting all Eirgrid/ESB activities on the NSI until an independent analysis would be undertaken. Fine Gael made similar commitments in previous pre-election timeframes.

“Fianna Fáil made clear commitments on this project over the last two election periods, with a minimum commitment to have a proper independent review of undergrounding when in Government.

“Promises were made of halting all activities until this review was completed. Indeed this was part of the Fianna Fáil 2017 motion in the Dáil, which was passed by a majority vote and by the Seanad also.”

Mr O'Reilly said that since Fianna Fáil entered Government as the largest party a fudge promise was made that the project will be reviewed as part of the National Development Plan (NDP) overall review, in the first 100 days of Government. Clear statements by Minister Ryan were made in the Dáil that the project is going ahead in its current format.

“Not a whisper of challenge or dissent from Fianna Fail. No request to retract his statement. So we can only assume it is Government policy.

“The Northern Ireland part of the line was approved on 14th September. It was again welcomed by Minister Ryan, stating that this is the final milestone in allowing the project to proceed.

“Not a whisper from FF, not a single press release from our North-East elected representatives. The Taoiseach in response to questions from Sinn Féin made no commitment to review the project.

“There has not been a single word of community support or action from the Fine Gael elected members in the North-East either, who are also Government partners and have the power to jointly shift Eirgrid’s destructive policy of deliberately provoking a bitter conflict situation with respected landowners and communities.”

Mr O'Reilly said the Fianna Fáil silence needs to be called out. “NEPPC is aware that grassroots support across all the counties remains very committed to undergrounding the project. There is still time for the elected representatives to honour their commitments but hiding is not an adult option,” he concluded.

A spokesperson for ESB Networks said it intends to commence the procurement process for construction contractors for the North South Interconnector in the fourth quarter of the year.

“To this end ESB Networks released a Prior Information Notice (PIN) as part of an initial market engagement process. Initiating this process does not commit ESB Networks to large scale spend on the project. In addition it is planned to commence with all other major materials procurement. These are typically 12 to 18 month procurement processes. Planning conditions will be discharged in full, as required by the planning permission for the projects,” he said.