Young father makes impassioned plea about Grid West line

Young father makes impassioned plea about Grid West line

Council calls on government to intervene

Áine Ryan

AS Mayo County Councillors agree to call on the Government to intervene in semi-state body Eirgrid’s plans to build a 400kV line in north and east Mayo, a father of two young children, who has recently built a house in Knockmore, made an impassioned plea in the chamber of Áras an Chontae last night.   
John McHale told the assembly that even though he owned a small farm along the N26, he knew nothing about Eirgrid’s plans until October 7, after he saw an advertisement for the project in a local newspaper. It was only then he realised his new house was right in the path of the power-line.
“I got the map and it showed that the line went straight across the roof of my house. The cables will be only 50 metres from my house and if the line falls down, it will be through my roof. Where is the counter-argument to what Eirgrid is saying? What fishermen from Germany will want to come to [the Moy Valley] to see all these pylons?  People aren’t sleeping at night,” Mr McHale said from the podium.
Pointing to the Mayo flag in the chamber, he said emotionally: “They are my colours down there too, green and red. Stand up and save us. I don’t want to be fried. Are you going to allow them put an aluminium zip up the county which will make 2.5km on each side derelict?”

Under-grounding
EARLIER Fine Gael Cllr Seamus Weir had proposed that Mayo County Council call on the government to put the Grid West cable underground and to consider other options. He observed that just a week ago, during a presentation, the company had claimed the precise details of the line’s pathway were some time away but yet, three days later, on Thursday last, people received letters confirming the location of the line.  
During a sometimes heated debate, Fianna FΡil’s Cllr Jimmy Maloney also repeated his proposal for Mayo County Council to hire independent experts to investigate the concerns of the receiving communities. He asked about the possibility of the council imposing a fee on Eirgrid for each pylon.
Fine Gael’s Cllr Peter Flynn observed that while he concurred with Cllr Weir, the Eirgrid message had always been clear; there would not be ‘under-grounding’.
“We are not dealing with a private developer here looking to screw us but it is a semi-state body supposed to be working in the national interest,” Peter Flynn said.
A spat arose after Erris Fine Gael Cllr Gerry Coyle urged that the community delegation should not be misled regarding the power of the county council, since this was in the hands of An Bord PleanΡla and, moreover, the council had long ago given the thumbs-up to such a development.
Responding Cllr Rose Conway-Walsh said she ‘absolutely and fundamentally disagreed’ with him.
“Like with the Corrib gas project, there is a right way and a wrong way to do things. Why can’t the 400 kV lines be replaced by underground lines for environmental reasons?” she asked, quoting such a decision in Abu Dhabi for such a rationale.
Concluding the meeting, Mr Peter Hynes, the County Manager, noted that while Cllr Weir’s motion was unanimous, the councillors were asking the government to contravene its own policy, regarding essential infrastructure. Mr Hynes also clarified the fact that, according to the local authority’s senior planner, the project was not contravening the County Development Plan.
“Eirgrid told us categorically it is not possible to put most of this line underground. I will end up living closer to the line than most people in this room and, of course, I have sympathy for the people who have come here today. We have, however, a job to do: to improve the infrastructure of this county,” Mr Hynes said.
He added: “If it is the view of this meeting that we should go and procure an independent third-party expert we will do that if we can afford it.”

Taoiseach’s response
SPEAKING at the Fine gael Castlebar selection convention on Sunday night, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said: “We can’t have investment without infrastructure and we need to deal with these things in a common sense and pragmatic way. You cannot transmit power without cables and while people might like ‘I like all the benefits but none of the challenges’, this is about dealing with these things in a very sensible, pragmatic way when there is a community gain to be attached as a consequence of major shifts which have taken place.”