Submissions on north-south interconnector draw to a close

Eleven weeks of oral hearings on the north-south interconnector project drew to a close in Carrickmacross on Monday with passionate submissions from concerned parties.

“The clear message that was sent out in closing statements was that there is a very viable alternative that is acceptable to the public which is to put the cables underground,” Meath IFA chair Diarmuid Lally said.

Over the course of the hearing, 1,200 written submissions, along with all the verbal submissions, were made to the inspectors, who now have the job of preparing a report for An Bord Pleanála. A decision is expected to be announced later this year as there is a level of urgency to this project due to pressure coming from Europe.

Lally praised the efforts of the local community over the past number of years fighting vigorously against this project: “Farmers and communities have been working with small resources, scraping together a few pound to fight for something they feel so passionately about.”

The North East Pylon Pressure Campaign (NEPPC) has raised many issues with the planning process throughout the oral hearings.

More than 50 access route changes on to farmers’ lands were made during the hearing, without any prior consultation of any sort with the landowner, according to the NEPPC, which has also raised concerns about what it believes are “glaring deficiencies” in the environmental impact statement prepared by EirGrid.

The north-south interconnector proposes the addition of a new 400 kV overhead line to the national grid, connecting the electricity grids of Ireland and Northern Ireland.