DEAR SIR:

I am writing to you to alert other farmers to my experience in dealing with a public body – in this case, Gas Networks Ireland.

A gas pipeline runs through a portion of my land – in recent times, it has become apparent that a drainage issue has arisen in a two acre adjacent area.

I contacted the above body in spring 2015 and it took a number of further calls before I was contacted by an official whose name I have enclosed. He eventually visited in October 2015.

We both agreed that drainage works were not feasible, so it was arranged that another official (name enclosed) would visit to arrange compensation.

There followed numerous phone calls to him – he failed to show up on two agreed dates without explanation but he did arrive on the third date. We talked figures; he left and rang me back on 15 September 2016 where we reached an agreement. He informed me that a form of acceptance had to be signed and I would have it the following Monday. No form arrived – I tried unsuccessfully to contact him on three occasions that week.

He rang the following Tuesday to say I would have it by Thursday, but it never came.

In early October 2016, I again contacted Gas Networks Ireland and made a complaint in relation to this behaviour. I also told them that my agricultural consultant would be handling all further negotiations. He experienced considerable difficulty in dealing with them but eventually on 22 December 2016, an agreement was reached.

The form of acceptance was emailed to him; I signed it and it was emailed back by return.

January 2017 arrived and still no money. Contact was again made with Gas Networks’ complaints department and I was assured the money would be paid in the week beginning Monday, 16 January – another broken promise. On Thursday, 28 January, contact was made one last time to inform them that their wayleave over my lands had been extinguished on the basis of their bad faith, their total lack of principle and their utter disrespect for me as one of their facilitating landowners.

Frustration

In the two years since I first contacted Gas Networks Ireland, my experience has been one of frustration and at times, humiliation. I now regard them as trespassers on my property and any of their officials will be treated accordingly – if they attempt access.

Farmers, be warned, granting a wayleave over your property to such bodies is like inviting a cuckoo into your nest. You will be pushed out, your rights will be trampled on and the condition of your land is of absolutely no interest to their well-paid officials.