Continued 'solidarity and unity' will ensure North South Interconnector is never built, meeting hears

- Eirgrid has made contact with landowners / Over 400 landholdings affected / €50,000 per pylon being offered, all subject to CGT .

A 16-year campaign to prevent the construction the North South Interconnector through Meath, Cavan and Monaghan now has Eirgrid "on the backfoot" and "continued solidarity would ensure it would never be built", a packed public meeting heard last night (Thursday).

The NEPPC (North East Pylon Pressure Campaign) organised the update at the Headfort Arms Hotel in Kells in the wake of letters being issued by Eirgrid to landowners offering financial packages for access to erect the giant pylons that will carry the 400KV power lines across their land.

Eirgrid had been accused of 'belligerence, disrespect and defying landowners wishes', after sending out letters in recent weeks offering €50,000 to farmers for each pylon they allow on their land. The project will see a total of 409 pylons erected if it proceeds. Some landowners have also had representatives of Eirgrid call to their property in the last couple of weeks.

The company has said it plans to press ahead with construction of the Interconnector despite continued opposition. Correspondence was sent to some 400 affected landowners with details of the compensation payments on offer, including €50,000 per pylon and €160 per metre of overhead lines.

The meeting last night heard that the payments to landowners would be staggered with a 20 per cent initial 'sign-up', 70 per cent on granting easement and the final 10 per cent when the line was energised. The package would also be subject to Capital Gains Tax.

For landowners who decide not to sign up to the compensation package, Eirgrid has said it will then move to the statutory process, where it will seek approval from the Commission for Regulation of Utilities for compulsory purchase orders to access the land.

Calling for continued solidarity and strength of unity among landowners, residents and communities, Padraig O'Reilly, spokesperson for NEPPC told the meeting of over 300 people: “The position we are going to take is to do all and everything, whatever it takes to stop these pylons being built.”

Campaigners have long called for the project to be put underground, something Eirgrid said is not viable because it would require too much power carried over too far a distance. The meeting heard that the move by Eirgrid to run the Kildare Meath 400KV line underground at a distance of 70km proved the undergrounding option was viable.

The presentation by NEPPC claimed that 2,550 homes would be within 1km of the line passing through 402 landholdings in Meath, Cavan and Monaghan.

The meeting also heard that the EU had downgraded the Interconnector project to 'non-critical' in 2020 and sought more scrutiny of the number of data centres in the country, claiming electricity consumption for such centres was greater than that required for all of rural Ireland.

In a statement released to RTE: Eirgrid Chief Infrastructure Officer Michael Mahon said: "We visited a number of landowners to date who have clearly indicated to us that they don't want to talk to us. On that basis, we have noted that on the file and moved on.

"There are other landowners we have engaged with who are actively interested in moving forward, some have signed forms, some want to talk to a solicitor or have time to think about it and have asked us to call back again.

"We feel we have an obligation to talk to all of the landowners on this because we are asking them to host the infrastructure for the life of the project."

The NEPPC now plan to further formalise arrangements with landowners to ensure Eirgrid do not go directly unannounced and visit properties and that they should go through NEPP.

There was no political representatives from the Government parties present last night. Deputies, Peadar Tóibín (Aontu), Johnny Guirke, Darren O'Rourke and Matt Carty (Sinn Fein), were present and voiced their support for the campaign and applauded the turnout at the meeting.