A MAN has said he will disobey a High Court order directing him to remove obstructions from his lands in Co Sligo on which the ESB and EirGrid want to complete work on pylons.
The pylons are part of an €80 million high-voltage line extending from Flagford in Co Roscommon to Srananagh in Co Sligo.
Ms Justice Mary Laffoy has given Patrick Mullen until midday today to remove all obstructions at the gate to the lands at Carrowmaclenay, Ballymote, so the electricity companies can complete work on the pylons.
Ms Justice Laffoy told Mr Mullen if he did not remove the barriers and unlock a gate to the field today, the ESB had the court’s leave to do so.
When asked yesterday by counsel for the electricity companies if he was prepared to comply with the orders of the court, Mr Mullen said: “No”.
Ms Justice Laffoy urged him to “think twice”. Mr Mullen and his wife Sharon were “playing ducks and drakes with the ESB”, the judge said. A medical certificate provided to the court yesterday on behalf of Mrs Mullen stated she was unable to attend.
Mr Mullen told the court he intended to contest the electricity companies’ case when the matter goes to full hearing.
He agreed that he had, in 2005, accepted €31,000 of a €41,000 “flexibility payment” from the ESB to allow it to carry out the work on his land. He said he was given 48 hours to accept that deal after being “coerced” into it by the Irish Farmers’ Association.
He said he had since carried out research into overhead electricity lines and claimed he had found they caused leukaemia. He was not opposed to the lines being underground, he added.
He denied he had told an EirGrid engineer he wanted €400,000 to allow the lines be put on his land. He said he had asked the engineer for compensation for loss of value in relation to four houses he had built elsewhere which the ESB did not provide electricity for. The loss of value was €100,000 per house, he said.
He agreed he had bought the land at Carrowmaclenay when planning permission had been granted for three pylons on the land. He said he was not made aware of the permission by his solicitor or the auctioneer who sold the land. He said it was his intention to build a family home on the land and to provide homes there for his three children.