'The will of the people will prevail' - NEPPC

A group representing landowners along the proposed route of Eirgrid's North South interconnector - granted this morning - has described the An Bord Pleanála decision as 'deplorable'.

A spokesperson for the North East Pylon Pressure Committee (NEPPC) has said they are not surprised by the decision but say that don't believe that the pylons will ever be erected.

'The public will not accept the totally unnecessary proposal from EirGrid... If political action is not taken this project will make the Shell to sea debacle look like a walk in the park. The will of the people will prevail,” said Padraig O'Reilly.

An Bord Pleanála confirmed this morning that it has granted planning permission to Eirgrid for its controversial 400kV North-South interconnector.

The proposed line of pylons is almost 140Km long stretching from Meath to Tyrone, totalling 299 pylons - 134 of which will run through Cavan and Monaghan.

NEPPC has vehemently fought the plans all the way insisting that they should be undergrounded.

The group released the following statement:

'North East Pylon Pressure Campaign (NEPPC) is neither surprised nor concerned with today’s decision by An Bord Pleanála (ABP) to approve the North-South Interconnector (NSI) overhead lines and pylons planning application. The reasons for this are as follows:

NEPPC is now calling on all elected representatives to seek a solution to the impending impasse and conflict. 'EirGrid has been grossly negligent in its refusal to even consider undergrounding. Time still exists for EirGrid to be directed by the Minister of Communications, Climate Change and the Environment to do the right thing and underground the project,' said Mr O'Reilly.

“The landowners and local communities are disgusted with how they have been treated for the last 10 years. If ABP think that there will be no repercussions in terms of integrity of the planning process from this decision then they are gravely mistaken,' he added.

'Worth €20m’ to economy by 2020
Currently there is only a single such interconnector between the two electrical networks (North and South) and a second interconnector, Eirgrid has said, will increase both the capacity and the reliability of the network.
This is a joint proposal between Eirgrid and System Operator Northern Ireland (SONI) who are responsible for the grids and the ESB and Northern Ireland Electricity are responsible for the construction. They have estimated the economic benefit by 2020 of the development at €20m, rising to €30m by 2030.