A group of Laois farmers are continuing a lengthy campaign to stop EirGrid building a new substation near Ratheniska.

The saga has been going on for 10 years, having started when plans for the substation came to the farmers’ attention in 2009. They opposed the project through the planning process, but it was eventually granted planning and that decision was upheld by a An Bord Pleanála hearing, which they sought.

The group call themselves RTS, after the villages of Ratheniska, Timahoe and Spink, around which they farm.

While the farmers lost the planning battle, they continued to oppose the development.

Contractors moved on to the site in 2017. The farmers monitored this activity and quickly reported breaches of planning conditions to Laois County Council. No commencement notice had been made and a pylon was erected in a location not compliant with the planning grant. Work at the site stopped and reinstatement work was carried out.

“We then thought they were gone,” says local farmer Colm Fingleton, who acts as spokesperson for the RTS.

“But they came back in June 2018 and started work again. So we blockaded the site and that blockade has been running ever since.”

Now, the farmers want EirGrid to abandon its plans for the site.

Opposition

The farmers oppose the substation for two main reasons. They say it would be a pollution risk to the underlying aquifer, which supplies drinking water to a huge rural area. Second, they say that the substation would have huge capacity for further development, making it unsuitable for this part of the country.

They came back in June 2018 and started work again. So we blockaded the site and that blockade has been running ever since

Fingleton says their investigations indicate the substation would have two huge transformers. These devices contain large quantities of oil for cooling and insulation. In the event of a leak this oil would pollute the aquifer, he says.

“It supplies 2.5m litres of drinking water to 12,000 people every day through seven resevoirs,” he says.

“It’s clean and reliable and the only source of drinking water in this part of Leinster.”

EirGrid has named the project the Laois-Kilkenny Reinforcement Scheme. It wants to take a 110kV line off the existing 400kV lines, which pass through the county and carry power from the Moneypoint generating station and on up to Dublin.

However, the farmers claim that the substation would be big enough to potentially cater for 17 lines. They are concerned it could facilitate new windfarms in the area.

“It could become one of the biggest energy hubs in Ireland,” Fingleton says. “It should be located in an existing industrial zone.”

EirGrid has maintained that the sole use of the sub-station would be, as named, to reinforce supply to Laois and Kilkenny. The planning process found in its favour, including on all environmental issues.

Colm Fingleton addresses the crowd at the Irish Grain Growers association protest at Boortmalt, Athy, Co Kildare. \Philip Doyle

The farmer group accuses EirGrid of not being open enough with local farmers when initially proposing the development. It will have to address this and improve communications for other, future projects, Fingleton says.

He points out that farmers in the area long accepted the 400kV and 110kV lines that are already running through their land. But they are no longer willing to allow access to these lines because of their dispute with EirGrid.

They are determined to continue their blockade of the site to prevent building of the substation and, according to Fingleton, have the backing of local community.