A call was made by Independent public representative Paudge Connolly at Monday’s meeting of Monaghan Co Council for an examination of the legal validity of EirGrid’s right to access lands without their owners’ consent in order to progress construction of the northsouth interconnector project. Councillor Connolly proposed that the Council request its legal advisers to determine whether the legislation being cited by EirGrid and ESB Networks to access land in relation to the interconnector’s construction, which was enacted in 1927, permitted such access to take place to facilitate what was a commercial development. Before Monday’s meeting was a letter forwarded by Cavan/Monaghan Fine Gael TD and Government Minister Heather Humphreys from Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment Eamon Ryan TD.
Minister Humphreys received the letter in response to representations on the land access issue that she had made to Minister Ryan on the Co Council’s behalf. The correspondence stated: “Thank you for bringing the correspondence from Monaghan Co Council to my attention. “As you might expect, it is clear that this is an operational matter for our system operators, EirGrid and ESB…
