No pylons! No underground cable! Please sign before Christmas 2013 to encourage Europe to act before Eirgrid bulldozes ahead, in the face of 100% public objection. This is vandalism -
THE CABLE IS NOT INFRASTRUCTURE, IT IS PURELY FOR EXPORT
Eirgrid must not be allowed to continue to degrade the whole country's health. Ireland has healthy soil and land and water. It is beautiful. Please sign this petition to keep it that way. The magnetic fields are very dangerous. Every other country stipulates that cable should not run closer than 200 metres to a house. Eirgrid are saying only 50 metres. They have no agenda bar to implement the gridlink and get the 3.2 billion investment. They have not assessed risk to health at all and dismiss the multitude of reports from other countries, because they differ from one another. The responsibility still lies squarely with them to record health deterioration, child cancers, dementia, motor neuron disease, chronic fatigue and all the other illnesses linked to electro magnetic charge, over at least a five-year period. If they were in charge of any other project they would have been sacked long ago. Thank God there is a governing body in Europe who can stop this willful destruction of a whole country on the wishes of a handful of people.
The company Eirgrid, Pat Rabbitte and Phil Hogan (environment minister) are violating every democratic, legal and political process by deciding to lay 100s of kilometres of 400kV electricity cable from the North to the South of Ireland. Every politician (bar these two) and every Irish company (bar Eirgrid) and every person living in Ireland, object to the pylons. They only do not object to laying the cable underground yet as they have not yet been told how many substations this will necessitate, or been notified that the health risks are only slightly minimized by burying them. Furthermore, most people are still being led to believe that Ireland needs this cable for some reason. Eirgrid have already brought one cable West to East that was erected on vast toxic pylons - with no planning permission - and some underground. If they can’t be forced to take this down, maybe it is sufficient to facilitate a reduced export commitment? Sign this petition if you have already been subjected to their constructions and would like to have them dismantled and compensation received.
It is necessary to humiliate Pat Rabbitte for the outrage of his part. Most recently, threatening that the public will pay for the expense of underground cable if we insist on no pylons. The people of Ireland do not want it or need the cable at all and WILL CERTAINLY NOT PAY FOR IT. Is our health and the value of our homes not high price enough? Please sign the petition to show that we will not give our consent for it to go ahead.
This petition is requesting European Intervention from those with a vision for the environment, health or the justice system to help with taking legal action against Eirgrid and the politicians that support them. They have gone against the Aarhus convention by not informing anyone of their project, which is widely agreed to be an act of vandalism against the whole country.
The pylons are more than 43 metres tall and 12 metres by 12 metres at their base. (The public have to seek planning permission to erect a pole with a one watt windmill on their property and yet these monstrosities, larger than any house are planned to go up every 100 metres or so, the length of the country to generate nothing and serve no-one.
Eirgrid have lied and said that the project is ‘vital infrastructure’ but all of Ireland has electricity, even on the coldest days and even the busiest factories. The project is purely to facilitate the export of renewable power to England. This is another legal breach, as England has only 3% renewable energy and will be fined if it does not reach the target: They have found a 'loophole in a European Directive' that allows them to import renewable energy from Ireland. (In exchange for soft loans, Pat Rabbitte has agreed to destroy the country. Furthermore, he has agreed exclusivity with Britain, so there will be no competition on price and the resource would never make Ireland prosperous. Furthermore, they are buying 10 years-out-of-date windmills to generate the power for the export. New turbines lie flat against the ground and need only a breath of wind to work. The ones Ireland is using and buying are huge and use a lot of power to get them going, if it is not a highly windy day. The Irish people were able to fend off the turbines to a certain extent, only to find that the much, much worse pylons might be allowed unchecked. The cable is completely UNNECESSARY and we seriously need help in stopping Eirgrid, who will not even enter discussion.
Most recently, they have offered 4 possible routes down the centre of Ireland and intend to choose the one that has the least powerful objection by its community. Eirgrid are currently deferring their deadline for objections until January, even though they already have enough to call off the project. They have put the onus back on the public to write, while holding no intention of relating the concerns to the planning office, when they apply formally. Once Eirgrid do put in an application, individuals will be required to pay 50 euro per objection, if they want it considered. It is also corrupt that the Head Of the Planning Board (John O Connor of An Bord Pleanala) has just moved to Eirgrid to take over as General Manager.
The whole process from with holding information, to offering four routes, to considering undergrounding as an option, while never having justified the need for the cable at all, right through to deferring their deadline is all designed to MANUFACTURE A CONSENT from the public and go ahead. They must and can be stopped.
There is definitely corruption and an inappropriate exchange of money taking place as the engineering report they employed was from Japan, notably outside Europe. It discussed the possibility of putting the cable underground and it says that in parts that might be 'disastrous' too. The other independent report, Cofy’s from May 2008, says that pylons will be disastrous. The cable itself is not necessary. Eirgrid have not given any argument for the cable, they just use words like 'vital' and this is not true.
Through no effort on behalf of Eirgrid, people are at last starting to hear that there are pylons planned for their area. (Eirgrid did not inform any house holders or communities that their area was being proposed and this is the contravening of the Arhuus Convention that has been so wrong. People have protested and asked them to put the cable underground. This petition goes further and demands that the whole project be abandoned as unnecessary. The whole process was unjust. Plus underground cable is also unsatisfactory, the people of Ireland just do not know about it yet. Underground cable can only hold 'direct' current rather than the 'alternating' current of an overhead line, so there would follow hundreds of substations (possibly every 10-15km), equally bad for the environment and visual impact. Eirgrid will not say how they intend to spend the rest of the 'budget'. The ominous word ‘upgrades’ to all lines’ has been used. The human body is stretched to capacity with our 110 domestic cable. We shoud not be in a hurry to have that changed to the 210 they suggest. It is again unnecessary. If the 3.2 billion budget exists, it should be paid off Ireland's debts or make Ireland self sufficient, by keeping the land and people healthy. Also, if the budget exists, why are people being told they will pay for the extra cost of laying cable underground? This is big business and politics at its worst and we need the governing authority of Europe to deal with it and fast. Thank you.
We would be grateful if The European Union could make The Irish Government aware of all the other laws and agreements that they are breaking in implementing this project, in the face of 100% public objection. Ireland is not a spare bit of land off England, it has a population who survive on the clean air, grow crops on the good land and have one highly valued, international income, which is tourism. Please support us wherever you are.