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UNLESS YOU’VE BEEN living under a rock over the last number of weeks, you will not have missed the heated debates about Eirgrid’s plans to build electricity pylons in Ireland.
The momentum of groups protesting against the construction of large pylons has escalated in recent weeks, with government ministers rallying behind the plans stating they are the best option.
So, what has all the fuss been about? If you haven’t been keeping up with this story, here it is explained:
EirGrid is implementing a €3.2 billion investment programme called Grid25 under which it aims to develop and upgrade the electricity transmission network.
Grid25 involves extensive work throughout the country, which includes building 800 kilometres of new power lines and upgrading 2,000 kilometres of existing lines – doubling the size of the electricity grid.
The controversy about pylons surrounds three of Eirgrid’s main projects. These are located in different areas of the country. The three projects are:
The Grid West project: The Grid West project is the largest Grid25 project in the west costing €240 million. It consists of a new high capacity power line linking the North Mayo area to a strong point on the transmission grid at Flagford, County Roscommon.
The chosen 1 kilometre wide corridor, starts north west of Moygownagh, runs west of Ballina, east of Foxford and Swinford, south of Charlestown and Ballaghaderreen before linking into the existing Flagford substation, near Carrick-on-Shannon.
(Via Eirgrid) Can’t see it, click here.
North South 400 kV Interconnection Development: EirGrid and NIE Northern Ireland Electricity are jointly proposing a new high capacity electricity interconnector between the electricity networks of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
(Via Eirgrid) Can’t view click here.
The Grid Link Project: The Grid Link Project is an estimated €500 million investment in the national electricity grid linking Leinster and Munster. The project consists of a new high voltage overhead power line linking Knockraha in Co. Cork to Great Island in Co. Wexford to Dunstown, near Kilcullen, in Co. Kildare.
In 2014, EirGrid will try and identify a route for the Grid Link Project from the corridor. Substation sites at Knockraha, Co. Cork, Great Island, Co. Wexford and Dunstown, Co. Kildare will also be identified. EirGrid does not expect to submit an application to An Bord Pleanála for planning approval for the route before 2016.
Eirgrid’s official deadline for feedback on the €500 million scheme was Tuesday 7 January, however they confirmed it’s still accepting submissions on project, eleven days after the publicised deadline.
(Via Eirgrid) Can’t view click here.
Eirgrid says the project will put in place a safe, secure and affordable electricity supply throughout Ireland and will help meet our renewable energy targets. Here are their specific reasons for each project.
The North South connector is being built to increase the capacity and the reliability of interconnection between the two networks, says Eirgrid.
They state that the allowing the two independent networks to operate together as if they were one system will be of mutual benefit to residents and businesses in both jurisdictions and will eliminate current restrictions in cross border support in the event of a shortage of electricity in one jurisdiction, thus enhancing the security of electricity supply throughout the island of Ireland. They also state it will bring significant cost savings.
Eirgrid states that the Grid West project is needed as the existing transmission infrastructure in the region needs substantial investment to accommodate the west’s increasing levels of renewable generation and that Ireland’s renewable energy target is to meet 40 per cent of electricity consumption from renewable sources by 2020, which this project, they state, will help to achieve.
Grid Link Project is “a vital development” for the region, says Eirgrid and will deliver a wide range of benefits including securing the future electricity supply for Leinster and Munster, providing a platform for job creation in the south and east of Ireland, enabling Ireland meet its 40 per cent renewable electricity target as well as facilitating possible electricity links with either Britain or France.
It depends which side you are on.
Here’s what the politicians’ are saying:
Taoiseach Enda Kenny has recently rowed back the Government’s plans for pylons stating he is receiving contrasting advice from experts, but that he will set out his position soon. During his trade mission to the Gulf region, Mr Kenny defended the Government’s approach to pylons.
Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte siad there has to be a “trade off between the comforts of modern civilization and some element of intrusion”.
Meanwhile, Ireland South MEP Phil Prendergast, who has actively campaigned to have the building of pylons halted, described the construction of pylons the “rape” of rural Ireland, calling on the EU Commission to fully investigate the health risks on humans and animals of high voltage overhead power lines such as those proposed by Eirgrid.
A letter from the Minister for Health James Reilly was in the public domain recently, which raised concerns about electro-magnetic fields in his constituency, with Labour Senator Denis Landy stating that this should be concerning “to all citizens”.
Meanwhile, the Minister for Enterprise, Jobs and Innovation, Richard Bruton:
It goes without saying that regions linked to a modern power network would find it easier to attract investment from big companies.
Well, the new chairman of Eirgrid John O’Connor didn’t instil optimism in people when he appeared in front of the Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications in which he admitted that he personally would not like to live beside an electricity pylon.
Speaking to RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, director of Engineers Ireland John Power said that companies looking to invest in Ireland could be discouraged if the electricity grid was not able to handle future demand, adding:
Put simply, a strong infrastructure is the foundation for economic prosperity.
Meanwhile Fáilte Ireland undertook a study to see what impact the project will have on tourism. They stated that it was a “sensitive development” and that Ireland is fortunate to have three core assets – it’s natural heritage, its built heritage and its cultural heritage.
Their report concluded that the “significance of landscape and visual factors, have been underestimated” in the Eirgrid Stage 1 Route Grid Link project, adding that it is their view that tourism factors have been “insufficiently developed in the analysis by Eirgrid.
Dermot Byrne, retired Chief Executive of Eirgrid explains why he thinks the Grid25 projects, stating there biggest challenge is public acceptance issue:
(YouTube/EngineersIreland)
People who live in areas where the pylons are to be built are concerned for a number of reasons.
Those living in affected areas have voiced their concern about potential impacts on the environment, their health and property prices, with demonstrations against the building of pylons now gaining force and protest groups established all over the country.
Up and down the country anti-pylon groups are protesting against Eirgrid’s plans. The Kilmovee group in County Mayo, states that they are “ordinary people” that are fighting against the “imposition of a 400Kv power line and pylons through the heart of our community posing increased health risks and irreparably damaging our environment, heritage and livelihoods”.
(Wexford Eirgrid Action Group Facebook Page)
Protests against Eirgrid’s plans are escalating with more than 50 pylon protesters staging a sit-in at the EirGrid information offices in Ballaghaderreen, Co Roscommon on Wednesday night lasting for over two-and-a-half hours.
Protesters outside the offices in n Ballaghaderreen. (Kilmovee Against Pylons Facebook)
While the group, RethinkPylons a not for profit organisation run by volunteers against pylons states that Eirgrid will build 45 metre high pylons, which could be 50 metres from someone’s home.
Others have concerns that the projects are not to do with improving Ireland’s infrastructure and is more about exporting energy abroad, for profit.
Anti-pylon groups are so exercised about the issue that they are considering running in the local elections, with the controversial plans tipped to be a very important issue in the run up the elections.
EirGrid has developed a Project Development and Consultation Roadmap to help people understand the process for developing a new transmission line and the opportunities for consultation as a project is brought to planning approval.
Typically there are four rounds of public consultation under which people can make submissions and provide feedback to EirGrid prior to the submission of a planning application to An Bord Pleanála.
Once an application is submitted, a formal period of statutory consultation begins under which people can make submissions direct to An Bord Pleanála.
Here are some links to where you can find further information and submission instructions.
Eirgird state: “We recognise that this is an issue some people raise. No, we do not feel people need to be concerned. The Irish electricity transmission system is safe and operated well within national and international guidelines and does not pose a health risk to anyone. We publish a lot of information on this subject.” Eirgrid’s study on electro-magnetic fields can be viewed here.
On the opposing side, some politicians have said they are concerned about the health risks. MEP Marion Harkin said she supported the undergrounding of cables because the European Commission had suggested a link between overhead power lines and childhood leukaemia was “valid” while MEP Phil Prendergast is urging the European Commission to fully investigate the health risks.
This is the nuts and bolts of the issue. While many groups acknowledge that the system needs improving and upgrading, their issue is that electricity pylons that they say will tower over their houses, ruin the landscape and de-value their homes are not the way to go.
They are arguing that underground electricity cables should be installed instead of 5o metre high pylons.
Sounds like a simple enough solution – everyone’s happy then, right? Wrong.
The Government argue that the experts have advised that if they go down the road of installing underground cables instead of overhead pylons, then the customer can expect to pay at least 3 per cent on their electricity bills for the next 50 years to pay for it.
He admitted that underground cables are “feasible” but that the extra cost will go “onto the bills of you and I and every other domestic customer”.
He said that the Energy Regulator has investigated what the additional cost will be and said they calculated that over all three legs of the Eirgrid programme it would cost an additional €2 billion and would add 3 per cent to consumer electricity bills over the next 50 years.
Eirgrid told TheJournal.ie that “in common with every other country in Europe, Ireland has an Alternating Current (AC) electricity transmission system, the vast majority of which is overhead line.
The said that in order to put the 400kV projects underground, they would have to be installed using a different technology, Direct Current (DC), as there are technical issues with putting 400kV AC lines underground over long distances.
Eirgird said installing long lines of high-voltage DC cables on to the Irish transmission system would be “extremely challenging” adding that sophisticated equipment is required to convert the power from AC to DC and back again so that it is compatible with the grid. “There would also be operational complexities,” said a spokesperson for Eirgrid.
Underground is also more expensive, they added.
So, the short answer is – the Government and Eirgird state that underground cables are too expensive and difficult to install, while residents think the cost to them, their livlihoods, tourism and their homes will be equally as damaging.
The estimates are:
EirGrid expects to submit a planning application to An Bord Pleanála for the North South 400kV Interconnection Development early this year. If the application is successful, it is expected that the project will be completed by the end of 2017.
The Grid West Project will submit a planning application in 2015 and it is expected that the project will be built by 2019.
The Grid Link Project will submit a planning application in 2016 and it is expected that the project will be built by 2020.
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There’s pylons already running along near the M4. They’re not the most aesthetically pleasing but they’re necessary, just as motorways are necessary. How about running the pylons all the way along the motorway routes, and clamping wireless hotspots or 4G cells to each pylon and giving free coverage to anybody living within sight of the pylons?
The pylons could also be used as a trunk for fibre-optic cables to get broadband out to the rural areas.
A win-win for everybody!
Brian stop making so much sense, they’ll charge you for it.
Two of the Pylon routes in question run through Special Areas of Conservation: the Comeragh Mountains and Slievenamon. Much work has been undertaken by Waterford CoCo in the development of tourism in the area, such as the recently launched hiking routes in the Comeraghs & the Deise Greenway cycle path. South Tipp CoCo is also seeking to promote tourism in the Suir Valley, along the former Towpath on the River Suir between Carrick-on-Suir and Kilsheelan. Surely such initiatives would suffer were pylons to be constructed in either or both of the aforementioned areas?
Why did EirGrid not consider an underwater power route from (a) Knockraha to Great Island via the Cork/Waterford coast or (b) from Knockraha to Dublin as part of its study area? Given that the company wishes to construct a 600-kilometre underwater inter-connector from Great Island to France, it appears incongruous that the same consideration would not be given by an Irish company for one of its proposed Irish projects?
It has been stated on more than one occasion by both EirGrid and Minister Rabbitte that this power line is necessary for economic development. How then did the country prosper during the late 90s and into the mid-2000s when this route was not in place and full employment was achieved?
Belgium has buried 80 per cent of all its cables according to MEP Brian Crowley Why has an exclusively overhead option been forwarded by EirGrid given what is now being carried out in other EU Member States?
Yes we can do all that but bury the cables.
Brian, that’s a smart idea – to provide fast internet to those living near power lines – new or existing. Community gain is something lacking from current proposals.
There is an awful amount of waffle been talked about re this issue. Every new article brings in new waffle.
The facts are this :
UNECE Compliance Committee have ruled that Ireland is in breach of Aarhus Convention. Ireland’s renewable plan (NREAP) has bypassed all environmental protection procedures and there was no SEA done. The citizens have been denied their rights even though we signed the Lisbon Treaty to give us those rights.
This is the elephant in the room but the media do not want to cover it. Something is drastically wrong here.
Bang on Ray! NREAP broke the rules. GRID25 was born to support NREAP. GRID25 only considering overhead pylons. No cost benefit analysis for any of it.
I’d pay the 3%, that way everyone in Ireland pays the 3% and not just the people who have to live beside the pylon. Sounds fair I think
I already pay more than 3% extra because live in a rural area, I would pay nothing more for foreign wind energy companies to make even bigger profits, The underground option at least will provide more jobs in the construction at what Irish are great at digging holes.
Gotta love us Irish. We want the best of everything but we just don’t want it in our communitys.
What do you mean we want the best of everything, all we want is what we pay for and are entitled to, do you want a pylon beside your home, bury all cables taking people off the dole and when you are digging put in a gas pipe, broadband and anything else required
No talk about the environmental impact by the engineers in the video. All about economics or making a profit by business. The comments about Ireland’s reputation overseas is hogwash. We don’t need that rhetoric. This visual pollution overshadowing beautiful Ireland cannot be allowed to proceed!
As somebody who is studying this kind of stuff it has been proven that environmental benefits in today’s world cannot be executed successfully to its best potential with out economics. We need the changes and sacrifices have to be made. I do think they should alter the look of the pylons though. Take a look at Choi + Shine Architects’ work. They designed humanoid pylons that will be more aesthetically pleasing. If we want our country to benefit and be more sustainable in the future we need to make sacrifices. Its a two-way street.
This article is a reasonable and useful summary.
It lacks the elephant in the room. Its like discussing Hitler but only mentioning his favourite food and hobbys.
Eirgrids mathematical skills are to be questioned. Misinformation if not telling outright lies seems to be the order of the day with this crowd of over paid semi state company. There was a cost analysis last year and they priced it the same. Do your homework. Do not believe in the spin from Eirgrid.
Don’t worry we the consumer will be shafted by the powers that be as they will increase the cost of electricity by 3% ANYWAY even if we covered the whole country with pylons so please don’t use that argument. And in ten years they will have to upgrade again with bigger cables.No there is a vested interest in using pylons ie phone companies looking to put up communication equipment on these huge pylons. All this pylons/wind are for to export all that energy over to Europe and UK. We will not see a decrease in our prices.
And never mind the visual impact they have on the land. Go over to Wales Pembroke beautiful countryside and it’s covered in pylons!
How much did the tax payer pay for not using the motorways ? €22 million was given to the toll companies because they were guarantee by the government that any shortfall from their projections of cars passing through their toll we would pay! And an automatic price increase. This government is shafting us just like the last one. the Dail and spin doctors and consultions and other hangers on need clean up their politics and stop shafting the people over vested interest.
Yes upgrade the system but bury the cables. Enough is enough!
Very good article.
Shame it will never happen.
NIMBYism & parochial politics trumps national development 100% of the time.
Besides, the bungalow blitzers don’t want THEIR view spoiled (despite the countryside already being spoiled by the proliferation of 1-off houses).
@joey
I am not stopping National development but I want to stop visual pollution going through the countryside. They can do all the upgrade but bury them so we can still have progress but without the health and environmental issues. Belgium has 80% of its cables underground so why not in this country?
Tin hat comments and one off housing comments do not help in trying to understand the bigger issue here. Trying to put urban against the rural. Well done about that. There is a real fear about health concerns, information is out there if you want look. The gov / companies are in a rush to exporting all this energy to UK and Europe and how much money can be made. Money. That is the be all off the whole thing.
So the alternative to overhead cables is everyone has to pay extra for their electricity for effectively the remainder of their lives so that a relatively small number of people don’t have their homes devalued? Would it be feasible to introduce a system where if a homeowner tries to sell their home and cannot due to its proximity to a pylon that the government would purchase the property? It would prevent the construction being delayed by endless planning objections and court cases and probably work out much cheaper in the long term.
Well said. And true. No wonder you’re getting mostly red thumbs!
Don’t forget this so called upgrade is also about the large wind export project in the midlands.
Nothing about the Midlands mentioned in the article?
We talk about pylons but where are Eirgrid getting the billions they dont have two cent to rub together so it is all borrowed.
Power companies pay Eirgrid for the transmission.
Eirgrid, like any other company can borrow where it sees fit.
I hope to look back with pride in future years that we are the people who put a stop to Eirgrid’s destruction of our environment & heritage. It might be too late for Georgian Dublin & Woodquay but it’s not too late to stop these unnecessary pylons from permanently destroying our countryside. Make no mistake about it, this infrastructure isn’t being built for the benefit of the Irish people but for the benefit of a few well connected business people who hope to do well out of selling wind power into the UK backed by subsidies & support from their friends in the Govt.
You can be sure that the brief that Eirgrid’s engineers got was to find the cheapest way to erect this infrastructure & this is what they did. Well maybe it’s time they went back to the drawing board & looked for the best way to build it & I have have no doubt that they will find that going underground & off-shore is the best way. Saving money in the short run at the cost of destroying rural communities is not good business & will be resisted at every step by people who care about our country & see Ireland as not just an economy but a society.
I agree we need the infrastructure but the health concerns for me are the big thing here.
Around the time I was doing my junior cert there was a plan in the local area for high voltage pylons so I based my junior cert science project on it. The reports I read at that time and the statistics they presented showed a marked increase in illness rates for those living near pylons.
In 30 years of research, no substantive proof of negative health effects has been found.
Please…. Please show us verified, peer-reviewed proof, say from the WHO or British Medical Journal.
I’d rather go by science that your HC project.
As I said do your homework instead of being spoon fed my government and date bodies. There are studies about health risks if you bothered to find them.
Some tripe from a tin-foil hat wearing blogger IS NOT proof.
If its not verified & peer reviewed from reputable sources its misinformation.
(But sure, don’t mind that, its all a conspiracy isn’t it!)
This article from 1987 indicates the data shows a increased in risk of illness
http://m.ije.oxfordjournals.org/content/17/1/1.short.
It’s not some tin hat blogger but International Journal of Epidemiology that published that before blogs existed!
Now you will find for every one that says there is an increased risk, two will say there isn’t. But I will put it this way, if you lived in the path of these things would you take that risk?
There of course is proof in several reports of childhood leukaemia & other illnesses being higher near to high voltage lines but as these lines are almost always put in areas of low income, that serves as a mitigating factor to make these reports “inconclusive”.
The ” inconclusive” strategy was also used by the tobacco lobby in the US & elsewhere with great success for many years.
I & most parents I know would not allow any company no matter how powerful or well-connected to gamble with the health of my children. Do the right thing Eirgrid because ye aren’t getting away with putting up these pylons when going underground & off-shore is a better option in every way.
@Bluechip
thanks for that you always get people putting you down if you have issues with certain aspects of policies from our politicians. Tin hat and conspiracies eh? Oh you are never allow to question. Jobs for the country, progress for all, the country people in their one off houses how dare you worry about pollution, health, etc. so why did Dublin people protesting about pool beg, yes same issues. Talk about head in the sand. That lovely mentality of ‘I am alright jack’ is one aspect I hate about we Irish.
The peer-reviewing which once was the guarantee that a piece of research was of a high standard has been replace by pal-reviewing.
Cheers guys…
The best you could do was small 27 yr old report stating the below in quotes:
“Nor Is it possible to determine from the available data if the increase in leukaemia is due to electromagnetic fields or to other factors to which electrical workers are exposed.”
& then this little hum-dinger!!……
“There is no clear association between cancer risk and residence near sources transmitting electricity.”
Priceless…. The “proof” = a 27 year old paper proving nothing!
You NIMBYs have got to try harder!
Oh thank you too, for you made my point.
You focused on the elements of doubt in there completely ignoring the ‘suggests an 18% increase in the risk of leukaemia’ and ‘may be small increases in leukaemia in those living very close to the source’
I want to be very clear on this, I’m not a NIMBY. These pylons are going nowhere near where I live and to hell with the visual implications. What I’m saying is if there is an alternative, why would we force people living in this country to accept potential consequences to their health.
Their is a very clever way of improving our electrical system without the need of these pylons at fraction of the cost. But I guess big business is at play here and so the story goes in ireland once again profit and greed “over”ordinary people.
Please don’t believe the brain bubble gum RTE puts out.
Care to let us in on your secret? [gets tinfoil hat ready]
The British think this destruction of the Irish countryside is a great idea as this snippet from the Daily Telegraph shows. Without these wind farms there is no need for pylons.
“And nowhere is this more so than in the Irish midland counties of Meath, Westmeath, Offaly, Laois and Kildare where another 1,100 turbines are planned – some even bigger than at Finuge – to generate electricity for export to the UK.
The bright idea was that this would enable Britain to meet it’s own renewable energy targets while bypassing growing opposition at home, earning Ireland over £2 billion a year in the process. It was thought that the Irish would accept the turbines as they had in the past. But the very scale of the scheme has ignited an anti-wind movement which spread rapidly through the midlands and is now erupting elsewhere – as the villagers of Finuge are bearing vigorous witness.
Ah yes – first the UK pillaged our nature resources (i.e Oak forests) and people (The financial support provide by the landowners to the Empire) and now they are back to build turbines (that they don’t want built) to export power back to the UK and further afield.
Eirgrid a lazy self interest government body who cannot provide a cost benefit assessment for the total pylons infrastructure around Ireland.
Eirgrid say it will cost 3BN to build this network – what and how long is the payback period.
This infrastructure will also support the huge number of wind farms that are plans for around Ireland – Wind farms that are in other countries proving to be not as economical means of generating energy as the manufacturers specify.
Also don’t forget Cigarette companies in the 60-70′s were saying there was no conclusive evidence that Cigarette’s were bad for people and they had reports to that affect also, just as Eirgrid are saying there is no evidence to support the health impacts of over head lines.
Do we as the people of Ireland who live, work and travel in Ireland and also promote Ireland around the world, do we want those huge plyons on the tourists photos and the Failte ireland and Discover Ireland photos of our wonderful country.
There are other ways – for every problem there is a solution
It just takes the want to find that solution.
I was wondering how long it would take the ‘Eirgrid’ mongrels to come out in force on social media …
Roy Dowling, I’ve seen you around the internet and you’re a fool, regurgitating whatever you think will get you a thumbs up or down.
Kieran Casey – why not just by-pass the article if the topic doesn’t suit you, that’s what most people do, only those with a specific intention would even bother to log in and write such a pathetically ignorant and inconsiderate few words.
Joey Joe Joe – your style of interaction leads me to believe you have some personal financial gain to make as anyone with half an ounce of brain can already do the maths, and your eagerness with which you attack a young person who tries to engage in the debate and share their work just shows your own cruel character and people like you make my stomach turn,
It these Grids go ahead, they supply the transport route for electricity to Europe and the only people set to make a profit are the companies involved. We are already paying for it in our bills, our grants, our pension reserve funds etc.
There are studies focused on the health risks. Run a search on Prof Staines and Prof Henshaw, Or better still look up http://www.iea.org/newsroomandevents/speeches/Ireland_IDR.pdf or study up on the ‘Supergrid’ http://www.trec-uk.org.uk/resources/airtricity_supergrid_V1.4.pdf – There are people in other countries who already have experienced wind farm companies coming on to their lands and exploiting the commerce.
If wind energy and pylons were a good idea then there would not be such rage over the introduction of them. Remember it is rural Ireland we are talking about. Homes, Schools, Villages, Towns, Farms, Hotels, Rural Industry … We’re all here using 20% less electricity than we did during the boom years.
We already meet the 14% renewable energy target set out for us by Europe.
Those of you who don’t see what’s happening, that’s fine, you’ll hang around and learn, but those of you who are engaging in a deliberate attempt to bully, insult and misinform … shame on you. Traitors to your own land and your neighbours. Shame on you.
Thanks Siobhan!
thank god someone with some sense! I was just about to say me thinks Joey joe works for Eirgrid with all his lovely comments. Ha
Róisin, all you have to do is click on the name and follow it, you’ll see it’s a false account.
I just can’t figure out if he’s Eirgrid or Journal, I hope it’s not the Journal, ’cause I’m after gaining some respect for them and stuff like that would just ruin their reputation, I hope it’s not a bunch of lads in the office using the thread to amuse themselves and increase the ratings!
Jesus another pylon story ffs……
Eirgrid like to portray those opposed to their plans as NIMBY’s but that is far from the truth. I don’t live near one of these proposed routes but I care deeply about Ireland & it’s environment & as far as I am concerned the whole country is my back yard. Every pylon Eirgrid try to erect will be opposed & not just by locals of that area but by people from all over Ireland, whether Eirgrid’s first attempt to steamroll the people of Ireland is in Louth, Mayo or Wexford or elsewhere I’ll be driving up from Waterford to lend my support & so will thousands of others & Eirgrid will see their costs escalate very fast. So Eirgrid do the right thing & stop your bullying of rural Ireland & put these lines underground or off-shore.
Electromagnetic field exposure would be much stronger if they’re laid underground, simply because the trenches dug to lay those cables are not deep enough compared to the height of the pylons. Electromagnetic waves don’t require a medium, meaning they can even travel through vacumn. Moreover every electrical appliance we use everyday produces radiation, as in the below link. So in this day and age, one cannot avoid radiation unless people stop using electrical appliances altogether.
The NIMBYs must bury their microwave ovens too.
One of the main issues re health reports is that there has been a huge amount of industry consultants heading various panels. Take the WHO and Mr Repacholi, who also headed the Irish Governments review in 2007. Eirgrid needless to say quote from both of these sources as if they are independent and unbiased which they most certainly are not. Eirgrid also quote from a review done by a professor of Astronomy. And when Minister Reilly decided to ‘forget’ the letter he wrote concerning health effects, he was quoted in various papers, using a paragraph from an Eirgrid document. So who should we believe ? Independent scientific research or Eirgrid and their paid utility consultants? Anyone who is reading up on these things needs to first check up on who was on the panel involved and what their vested interests are. I for one would not like to live near any pylon and I certainly won’t mindlessly believe information given out by the electricity companies when it comes to the health of my children.
There is a solution to pylon controversary
Install a submarine cablein river shannon commencing at Ardnacrusha and finishing in Coleraine
Install a submarine cable in river shannon commencing at Ardnacrusha as far as turn off for Royal canal and strap it to canal wall the whole way to Dublin/Irish Sea
Result of this is that you have connected West Coast to North coast and also to East coast with two transmission lines
If necessary you could install a submarine cable from Great Island via river Barrow to join canal system in Athy and on again to Dublin
The permitations in our river network are endless and no pylons anywhere
Just think about the opportunities and Irish jobs involved
Shannon needs dredging to stop land flooding and this would be perfect opportunity to do this at same time
Ireland could resolve their power transmission problems for centuries ahead without destroying the countryside
There is no doubt that this is the way forward and the chosen way for sea crossings need to be transferred to rivers
Enda Kenny take note as Irish jobs using submarine method are far greater than using foreign manufactured pylons erected by foreign workers as normal
We need Politicians to lead and be brave with innovative decisions that avoid controversary and enquiries and tribunals……..
The submarine method in rivers would require no planning and would be completed within 5 years and not 10 as with pylons
The bullying, namecalling and dodging debates as practised by green zealots is backfiring on them as people wake up to all the scams going on such as pylons to send power abroad and renewable subsides paid to already wealthy insiders.
We yam
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