The day that EirGrid arrives up to get access to somebody’s field they won’t get access to it, according to Meath East TD Regina Doherty.

Doherty was speaking on RTÉ Radio 1’s Morning Ireland today following her appointment as Minister for Employment and Social Protection, where she was asked how far she goes in supporting civil disobedience following comments she was reported to have made in December of last year.

“My attitude is that people of Cavan, Meath and Monaghan have been treated disgracefully by EirGrid over the last 10 years.

“I first ran in a general election in 2007 and that’s when I became active. One of the first political meetings I attended was in Trim where there were over 4,000 landowners, community representatives and normal people who were starting negotiations with EirGrid.”

She said that 10 years later EirGrid, which has been tasked with building the North-South interconnector, is no further on to be able to build this.

“I support the farmers, the landowners and my community to be able to make sure that they get treated with respect by EirGrid who are there to act on behalf of the people.”

Civil disobedience

Minister Doherty refused to be drawn on saying that she supports either civil disobedience or law-breaking.

“I will support the farmers, the landowners and my community to make sure that they get treated with respect.

“Nobody is going to break the law, absolutely nobody is going to break the law. But I’ll tell you what I can foresee.

“The day that EirGrid arrives up to get access to somebody’s field they won’t get access to it.

“The reason they won’t get access to it is because they haven’t treated these people with respect. So the sooner they start treating people with respect maybe we’ll get the North-South Interconnector built,” she said. .

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