‘They will have to be willing to bulldoze through farmers’
A farmer from Muff says he will fight tooth and nail to prevent pylons from being erected on his land.
Michael Farrelly made the comments following the publication of an independent review of the North South Interconnector line, which runs from Meath to Tyrone. The latest report accepts the findings of previous reports including one by the 2018 Expert Commission, which indicated that the project should proceed as an overhead line.
Michael is now calling on farmers and affected landowners to pull together, not to allow the pylons to be erected.
“There will be serious problems if they try to put pylons here. I’ll end up in jail. I don’t care... They will have to be willing to bulldoze through farmers. Unless we stand together we don’t have a hope of stopping them. We’re being walked on. We need to pull together. If they build one pylon, then we’re in trouble.”
Michael doesn’t accept the reason of “cost” for not putting the lines underground and says there has been plenty of time to find an alternative solution.
“It’s been over 15 years since they were first proposed. That is plenty of time to find another way. The government is willing to pour money into other projects and go way over budget like the Children’s Hospital, but they won’t do what the people want. We definitely could have put them underground by this stage.”
Michael says that the route, which goes straight through his land, will have a detrimental impact on his farm.
“They go straight down the middle of my farm and right beside where my cattle are being fed, they’re telling me it will do no harm to the cattle, but I’m talking to other experts who tell me that the current will have an impact on my cattle. There’s one pylon set to be on my land, but there are two others that are very close, they’re right on my boundaries.”
Michael says he feels that his area has been inundated with unwanted developments in recent years: “I used to be able to walk around my farm and see nothing. Now I’m surrounded by 12 windmills and now they’re putting the pylons on top of me.
“There’s no end to what they’re doing here, it’s a mess.”
He also says that the pylons are having a major impact on property value in the area.
“They’re telling us it won’t devalue our property, but my neighbours tried to sell their house and, when the buyers heard the pylons were coming this way, they cancelled the sale and it still hasn’t been sold. My daughter was going to build on a site on the farm but won’t now because of the pylons.”
He also expressed concern over the potential health risks of the high-power lines.
“Myself, my wife and my four children, we’re all worried about our health. Cancer and other illnesses have all been linked with pylons. It’s easy for others to say that there’s no proof of negative health impact associated with them, but they don’t have to live near the lines.
“A friend of mine parked his jeep under a 250kv power line on a damp evening and when he put the key in to unlock it he got a shock from the power coming down. There’s no way that can be good for a person’s health.”
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