SPARKS FLY AS LANDOWNERS VENT INTERCONNECTOR ANGER AT AUGHNAMULLEN MEETING

A closed meeting of landowners impacted by the proposed North South Interconnector was held on Tuesday May 7 at Aughnamullen Sports Centre to discuss the recent encounters of landowners with EirGrid Agricultural Liaison Officers. Co Monaghan Anti Pylon Committee Chairperson Donal McDaid claimed at the meeting that if EirGrid “put a spade in the ground” they would be in breach of planning legislation.

Mr McDaid referred to the passing by the members of Monaghan Co Council at their monthly meeting earlier on Tuesday of a motion requesting the Council executive to seek legal advice on the status of EirGrid’s planning application for the north-south interconnector. “Landowners remain strongly united in challenging the latest attempts by EirGrid to try and snare them into submission on their property entitlement by demanding them to agree with EirGrid’s terms in signing the voluntary easement agreement,” a spokesperson for the campaign group told the Northern Standard following the meeting. “Landowners were visibly angry and very disgruntled by the recent EirGrid tactics. There was a lot of animosity, and sparks flew at the mere mention of some of the tactics employed by the Agricultural Liaison Officers on their unannounced visits to landowners’ properties. “Mr McDaid gave a detailed outline of the strategy currently being pursued by the committee on behalf of the landowners.”

The following is the text of a media release issued by the CMAPC in relation to Tuesday evening’s meeting: Landowners have vowed to continue opposing EirGrid’s and ESB’s plans to construct the 400Kv North South Interconnector overhead powerlines on their private properties at a packed landowners meeting held in the Aughnamullen Sports Centre on Tuesday night. They are enraged by the pressure being applied by the repeated attempts of the EirGrid Agricultural Liaison Officers to brow beat them into signing their voluntary easement agreement, with more threatening letters and extended timelines being issued in…