Leo’s pylon remarks ‘nonsense’

The North East Pylon Pressure Campaign (NEPPC) group has described as a “nonsense” comments by An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in respect of the North-South Interconnector, and are urging him to take a closer “look at the facts”.

Speaking to the media in Bailieboro last Friday, An Taoiseach suggested that overgrounding the controversial lines would mean “more power” and consequentially “bring more jobs” to the region.
“When it comes to the North South Interconnector, there has been a lot of reviews at this stage. Take them all together essentially what they say is, yes undergrounding is possible; two it is much more expensive; and three it is inferior because it’s not possible to power the counties, if you like, along the way,” said An Taoiseach in response to a question put to by the Celt on the future of the project.
“If you take somewhere like Monaghan for example, we want to bring more power to Monaghan to bring more jobs, and while people may dispute the process and the different reviews that have happened, they all do say that. It may be possible, but it is much more expensive and it is an inferior solution in terms of getting power to all the parts of Ireland, because it’s not just about connecting north-south, it’s also about providing energy and power to counties along the way too.”
However, Padraig O'Reilly of NEPPC described the comments by An Taoiseach as a “nonsense statement”, pointing firstly to the resubmitted planning application by Eirgrid in 2016, which omitted the need for a substation in Kingscourt. “They stated it was not needed for the Cavan-Monaghan area for the foreseeable future. Secondly, even if the project is undergrounded, it does not stop new industry being connected to the existing overhead infrastructure. Remember the proposed interconnector is a second one, the existing one there already allows for new industry.”
Mr O'Reilly added: “These types of statements from the Taoiseach are misleading if he cares to look at the facts.”