Aontu bill on pylons passes first Dail stage

The Aontú Bill which seeks to fully cost the over and under grounding of the North South Interconnector to prove the case for undergrounding, has passed the first stage of the Dáil.

Deputy Peadar Toibin who tabled the bill today said; “The Government seeks to construct 409 pylons, up to 51 metres high, caring 400,000 volts through Meath, Cavan and Monaghan, Armagh and Tyrone. There will be a minimum distance of 13 metres to homes allowed.

"Opposition to the 140km interconnector has raged since 2008. There are significant 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 industries are all extremely alarmed”.

“The truth is the technology the government seeks to build is becoming out of date. It has been superseded by new underground technology that can do the same job. Indeed new underground lines with similar distances are being built between Germany and Belgium within budget.

“The campaigns run by NEPP, the Monaghan Campaign and SEAT have been incredibly well run. But they have been cursed by politicians who put their arms around them for photos while in opposition, but go underground when in government. Fianna Fail promised a watery review in the last few weeks. but it amounts to nothing more than a desktop look at existing information plus the input from Eirgrid.

"Green Party leader Eamon Ryan says he believes the controversial North-South electricity interconnector must go ahead as planned despite the Taoiseach ordering it be reviewed”.

“We are up against time, the clock is ticking. There is a Judicial Review in the north. However serious questions have to be asked as to what efforts are Sinn Fein making in the north to stop this. There seems to be a dual approach within Sinn Fein on this. They are opposed to it in the south but there is no evidence that they are using their full energy to stop this in the north”.

Deputy Toibin said the purpose of the Bill is to establish a review group to examine the route of the North-South Interconnector, to define the review group’s terms of reference and to require it to submit a report to the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications.

"It provides for the necessary secretarial and administrative support, technical and professional advice and assistance towards research to the Review Group.

“This Bill seeks to facilitate analysis of both undergrounding and overgrounding the North South Interconnector in terms of technical performance, economic impact, environmental preference, socioeconomic impact and deliverability.

"The Bill will facilitate analysis of the cost of the North South Interconnector in terms of damage to house prices, property prices and damage to local business, enterprise and Agri-businesses. This has not been done before”.