Up to now there’s been no dissenting voices among local councillors on the contentious EirGrid pylons issue. All area county councillors have stood firmly on the side of constituents, pledging their support in their opposition to the Grid Link project.
At December’s meeting of Fermoy Town Council though, a contrary stance was taken by Cllr Pa O’Driscoll, a Fine Gael county and town councillor.
He said he had sympathy with people who don’t want to have the pylons erected near them. But, he pointed out, people were opposed to motorways too and are now driving on them. The World Health Organisation has said there are no health issues associated with the pylons, he pointed out.
UNDERGROUNDING
“I would take their word for it. If they can be undergrounded well and good, but it would have to be done through tunnels as the cable would be hot. It would have to be undergrounded for 200 kilometres and the longest there’s been undergrounding to date is 10 kilometres,” he told his colleagues.
He also said the cost of repairing the high voltage line, if it were placed underground, would be substantial. It could take weeks to find any fault. “It’s not that simple,” he said of the argument to underground. Maybe the solution is a combination of both undergrounding and overgrounding, he went on.
Cllr O’Driscoll said he didn’t like the motion before them that had sparked the discussion. It came from Cllr. John Murphy who called on the town council to support the anti-pylon group in the area in their efforts to stop EirGrid from erecting the pylons citing health issues, the visual impact, magnetic fields and other concerns people have. And, further, he said, “The government could decide to sell it off in a couple of years.”
“Are you for pylons so?” Cllr Murphy demanded of Cllr O’Driscoll, asking the question three times after he said he didn’t like the motion. “Let’s go back and live in a cave,” Cllr O’Driscoll responded. If the line was put underground and there was a break at Christmas that took time to repair and the power was off, “people won’t want that,” he told Cllr Murphy.
AMENDED MOTION
Cllr Noel McCarthy supported the motion. He said he’d spoken to Minister Pat Rabbitte recently and argued the case for undergrounding the line. He’d attended the EirGrid presentation at Corrin Event Centre about the Grid Link project. “It was first class, they sold it well, but the reality is sinking in,” he said.
Cllr Seamus Coleman also supported the motion. He said EirGrid had failed to consult with people. That was the real problem. “There is genuine concern. There are fears. The grid has to be upgraded,” he said.
Cllr Murphy was willing to have his motion amended to reflect only that they support the local anti-pylon group. Cllr Coleman proposed that amended motion and Cllr O’Driscoll was sufficiently mollified to second it.
