Eirgrid 'profiled elderly' in plans to build pylons
Power firm accused of targeting farmers who live alone as path of least resistance to project
Sunday June 06 2010
Eirgrid, has used age profiling, targeting elderly farmers living alone, to identify the "path of least resistance" to erect pylons for an interconnector in the north-east that would link electricity grids in the North and the Republic, it was claimed last week.
The extraordinary claim was made to An Bord Pleanala's public oral hearing into the plan for a 140km overhead line on high lattice towers stretching from Co Meath to Co Tyrone by James McNally, who is a chartered management accountant.
Mr McNally, who has worked extensively in Irish business as well as with the HSE and local authorities, carried out an analysis of the planned route in his own locality near Castleblayney, Co Monaghan.
He told the oral hearing in Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, that a study of the maps and landowner boundaries presented in the Environmental Impact Study strongly suggested that Eirgrid had used age profiling in identifying its target route passing through his neighbourhood.
"They have targeted elderly bachelor farmers whose ages range between 70 and 82," he said.
The plan has provoked widespread opposition among local groups, including the North East Pylon Pressure Group, which argues that large pylons and high voltage overhead power lines are not suitable for the area.
They suggested that an underground cable running beside existing railway lines was a viable and better alternative, and would not impact on animal and human health or on the tourism sector in the north-east.
Eirgrid said there were no health issues relating to overhead power lines and that the development was needed to improve electricity competition by reducing constraints to the all-island electricity market and improving supply and reliability of the network in the north-east.
Mr McNally said that he had experience of correlation and regression analysis and he believed that these, or similar computerised mathematical techniques using updated software technology, may have been used by Eirgrid to determine the line where least resistance would be encountered -- "namely, location address, marital status and age of elderly landowners".
He said he also believed that Eirgrid had also used "local knowledge" to ascertain the ages and circumstances of people residing in a particular area.
"It is no coincidence, in my view, that most of the landowners living in my neighbourhood with the most number of pylons fall in to a certain elderly age category.
"These are facts, how they arrived at targeting this vulnerable group of people only Eirgrid has the answer," Mr McNally said.
In his submission made on behalf of his own family and four elderly farmers living in the area, Mr McNally produced a map that he said identified the route of the proposed interconnector, which appeared to traverse the land of many elderly farmers in a small area.
"I cannot believe that a public organisation would employ such tactics as to prey on the most vulnerable, weak and elderly people in our community.
"These people have worked hard to build up their farms and homesteads. They are in a weak position to defend themselves against well-educated Eirgrid officials, who will use their considerable knowledge and training to outsmart the elderly farmer.
"Isolated and alone, feeling stressed and worried, the elderly person is most likely to concede to authoritative figures," Mr McNally said.
- JEROME REILLY
Originally published in
