Interconnector would leave family's house worthless

As the second week of hearings into Eirgrid's proposed pylons project comes to a close, the North East Pylon Pressure gave their submissions against the proposal. However the human face of the proposal was also to the fore this week with Cavan people telling of their concerns. Gwen Reilly from Cortubber, Kingscourt, told the inspectors at the hearing that they had returned home from Australia in recent years to settle here and the proposal was very upsetting for them. They had bought a site at Drumbar in 2008 and obtained planning permission from Cavan County Council but subsequently discovered that Eirgrid were planning to locate a substation approximately 800m from the site. The propsosal is to site the substation to the rear and side of their property and a pylon 50 metres or less to the front of it. Ms. Reilly said this would completely dominate the front view and the rear and side of the proposed dwelling and would essentially render her house worthless. Also in her submission to the hearing she said: "I have two children aged ten and three and have grave concerns about the possible health implications of this level of exposure to electromagnetic fields, which all in effectively surround my proposed residence. In light of this concern, I don't believe that I can in conscience go ahead with developing what I had planned as my dream home." Later she told The Anglo-Celt: "What made the site special was the history of the site as I have the original deeds of the site and the fact that my sister lives close by and I wanted to raise my family in the area. If this goes ahead, I can't take the risk to our health and safety." Another local resident along the proposed route of the Interconnector, Patricia Tierney said: "As young parents were are under great stress because of the proposal due to living in close proximity to the proposed substation and 400KV cable development. Mrs Tierney said that their farm is situated on a hill directly in line with the proposed sub station and there is direct visual access to that area from her front door. "We have two children aged five and two years old with another baby expected in June. Our children will have to grow up under this development, go to the local school, play sports etc. Who will want to go walking or cycling under massive pylons or power lines? Our children will not be able to appreciate the quality of life in the country as we did when we were growing up," said Mrs. Tierney. She also said they were farmers with a dairying herd and free range hens. The farmyard, milking parlours and fields where the cows are kept would all be in close proximity to the development. She added that the free range hens' paddocks, although about three quarters of a mile away from the farm, would also be affected by what she termed as the "spaghetti junction" of lines in the area.