Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

The new NMH is planned to be co-located with St Vincent's hospital in Dublin 4. Department of Health

Q&A: What are the issues surrounding the National Maternity Hospital moving to St Vincent's?

A range of questions are hanging over the relocation plan.

LAST UPDATE | 7 May 2022

QUESTIONS AROUND THE ownership of the site of the new National Maternity Hospital have again come to the fore this week as Cabinet looks set to approve the relocation of the crucial healthcare facility in the weeks ahead.

The relocation to a site on the grounds of St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin has proved highly controversial as, until recently, the site was owned by the Religious Sisters of Charity.

The religious congregation has now transferred its ownership and if the relocation plan goes ahead the State would lease the land for 299 years.

Why are people concerned about the ownership?

Last week, St Vincent’s Healthcare Group (SVHG) completed the legal transfer of the Sisters of Charity’s shareholding in the group to the new company, St Vincent’s Holdings CLG, paving the way for the maternity hospital to be built at the Elm Park site.

Campaigners and opposition political parties have raised a number of concerns about the proposed deal. 

Some say the fact that the land is owned by a company connected to a religious entity means it could fail to deliver elements of healthcare, such as abortion and IVF, that are legal in Ireland but not approved by the Catholic church.

The structure of the deal has also been criticised with various queries raised, including why the site is being leased and whether it could be bought with a compulsory purchase order. 

The history of abuse scandals involving religious orders, particularly regarding institutions such as Magdalene Laundries and industrial schools, has led others to say that religious organisations should have no involvement in the provision of women’s healthcare.

The Department of Health has repeatedly stated that all procedures that are currently provided at the National Maternity Hospital under Irish law will be provided in the new NMH if it relocates to the Dublin 4 site.

This includes termination of pregnancy, provision of contraception services including tubal ligation, fertility services and gender reassignment procedures.

Who are the Religious Sisters of Charity?

The group was set up early in the 19th century with the aim of serving the needs of the poor in Dublin.

Over the course of 200 years, it grew to have around 150 communities spread across four continents. The group is involved in healthcare, education and charity work with homeless people and asylum seekers.

The Sisters live in the local community to which they are assigned and the order remains centrally governed from Dublin.

The Sisters were involved in five industrial schools and two Magdalene laundries.

They were one of the religious orders included in the Ryan Report (the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse). The report, published in 2009, detailed vast amounts of abuse at religious institutions over the course of decades.

The report notes that the Sisters of Charity have never issued a general public apology in respect of child abuse. However, the order has issued three specific apologies relating to the criminal convictions of staff members.

Have they paid redress for involvement in institutional abuse?

A total of 18 religious congregations have offered to pay €480 million of the €1.5 billion costs of the institutional child abuse redress scheme set out in the Ryan report.

Under an agreement worked out in 2002, the Sisters of Charity were to transfer three properties (worth €11.8 million) to help pay the costs. One of those properties has yet to be transferred.

The congregation has also paid €2 million in cash and €3 million in waived legal fees.

Will the nuns be involved in the operation of the hospital?

As this controversy has rumbled on over the course of several years, health ministers, civil servants, masters of the National Maternity Hospital and SVHG (which operates St Vincent’s and other hospitals) have all insisted that the religious order will have no input in the operation of the maternity hospital.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said this week that “multiple layers of legal governance protections and structures” have been put in place to ensure that all lawfully permitted procedures, including abortion, will be allowed at the hospital.

hospital 368 A protest in favour of state ownership of the National Maternity Hospital outside Leinster House in Dublin. Sam Boal Sam Boal

The Department of Health also insisted that no representatives of the Sisters of Charity would sit on the board of the hospital.

However, former NMH master Dr Peter Boylan has continuously raised objections about the ownership structure.

This week he wrote to Taoiseach Micheál Martin to again raise concerns, including that the Vatican would have had to sign off on the Sisters of Charity transferring their shareholding in the hospital site to a new charity, St Vincent’s Holdings.

Dr Boylan argues it is “clearly not possible” for the government to make any commitment that Catholic ethos will not govern the hospital.

This view has been disputed by Minister Donnelly, the Department of Health and SVHG.

While SVHG acknowledged that the Sisters of Charity sought approval from the Vatican to transfer their shareholding in the group to St Vincent’s Holdings, it said the Vatican had no say or influence in the establishment of the new company, the appointment of its directors or how it will operate.

“No negotiations took place between SVHG, the Catholic Church or the Vatican and no
instructions (hidden; implied or otherwise) were conveyed to the SVHG board in relation to SVH CLG, nor would they have been countenanced,” it said in a statement.

If a Catholic ethos is impacting the care provided could the government take action?

The Department of Health says the Minister for Health will have the power to ensure that all legal procedures are available.

It says the constitution of the company that will run the hospital (NMH DAC – which is part of SVHG) states that the health minister “has the power to direct its Board to ensure that any maternity, gynaecological, obstetrical or neonatal service which is lawfully permissible in the State will be available in the hospital, without religious ethos or ethnic or other distinction.”

The constitution sets out that the Minister will own a ‘Golden Share’ in the company and will nominate three members of its Board of nine.

Dr Boylan is among those who have argued that this is not sufficient to ensure that all procedures will be available.  

What do we know about St Vincent’s Holdings CLG, the charity the Sisters transferred their shares to?

Last week, St Vincent’s Healthcare Group completed the legal transfer of the Sisters of Charity’s shareholding in the group to a new company, St Vincent’s Holdings CLG.

The new company is a not-for-profit group with charitable status. 

Its directors are Professor Michael Keane, respiratory consultant at St Vincent’s private hospital, Dr David Brophy, vascular and interventional radiologist at St Vincent’s Hospital, and Sharen McCabe, director of McCabes Pharmacy.

These directors hold the shares in St Vincent’s Holdings, which in turn owns its shares in SVHG.

The Sisters of Charity and the Department of Health said that the order will have no role in the future of the new charity or the new National Maternity Hospital.

Boylan argues that the charity is approved by the Vatican and has Catholic values.

SVHG says the independent directors are restricted in what they can do and they are legally required to act in the best interests of the Group.

“The Religious Sisters of Charity and the Vatican have no say in the appointment of Directors or anything to do in the operations of the Group,” SVHG said.

Can a compulsory purchase order be made on the site?

The use of a compulsory purchase order (CPO) has long been touted as a potential solution to the controversy surrounding the St Vincent’s site. 

As outlined in this explainer article from 2017, there are several obstacles that would have to be overcome if a CPO was to be used.

This includes lengthy delays due to legal proceedings, potentially going all the way to the Supreme Court, and compensation costs.

How much is the rent? €10 or €850,000?

Earlier this week the Taoiseach said the hospital would effectively be in public ownership due to annual rent of €10.

However, the lease defines the rent as: “€850,000 per annum or such revised rent as may be payable in accordance with the provisions of this Lease from time to time.”

It then says that the rent “shall be abated to €10 per annum”, as long as six conditions are met.

These are the conditions:

  • The HSE remains the tenant under the Lease;
  • The Lease is not assigned without the consent of the Landlord;
  • Fhere is no change to the Permitted Use without the consent of the Landlord;
  • The Premises is actively used for the provision of public health services save for any reasonable period of non-use due to repair reinstatement;
  • The HSE does not abandon use of a substantial part or all of the Premises;
  • The HSE does not exercise a right pursuant to the Landlord and Tenant Acts to (i) extend the term of the Lease (ii) acquire a reversionary lease or (iii) seek to acquire the Landlords interest.

Róisín Shortall has been among those raising questions about the potential for rental costs to increase dramatically.

National-Maternity-Hospital-Plans An artist's impression of the proposed hospital at Elm Park.

The Social Democrats co-leader asked in the Dáil: “If St Vincent’s Holdings is magnanimously offering an annual rent of €10, can the Minister explain why this punitive penalty clause exists?”

In response, Transport Minister Eamon Ryan echoed the Taoiseach’s line that €10 per year for 300 years was “akin to ownership”. 

When the lease ends, could the Sisters of Charity take back control of the site?

As with all such agreements, when the 299-year lease ends the land and any remaining building will revert to the freeholder.

However, that won’t roll around until 2321 and health officials say that is far in excess of the useful life of this hospital.

Why is the co-location of a maternity hospital with a regular hospital deemed preferable to a stand-alone maternity hospital?

In Ireland, there’s a long-term plan to co-locate all stand-alone maternity hospitals with adult hospitals.

A Department of Health spokesperson said the NMH is the first priority because the current facility on Holles Street, Dublin, is “simply inadequate in every respect”.

Women giving birth sometimes need emergency care and co-location helps facilitate this.

The spokesperson noted that every year, several hundred pregnant women are transferred to St Vincent’s Hospital for treatment that is not available at Holles Street.  

Up to 10 critically ill women are also transferred to receive intensive care that’s not available at Holles Street, on an annual basis.  

Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.

Close
20 Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic. Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy here before taking part.
Leave a Comment
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Cillian_Durkin
    Favourite Cillian_Durkin
    Report
    Jan 9th 2014, 5:17 PM

    Best description I have heard of this process so far was Vincent Brown describing the approach as “showing the state’s contempt for the ordinary person.”

    One thing that FG/FF could have as common ground for a coalition in 2016 is their continuing contempt for the Irish people.

    Whether you support the pylons or not is not what my point is about.

    163
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Aunty Simmonite
    Favourite Aunty Simmonite
    Report
    Jan 9th 2014, 5:43 PM

    Common Purpose have always held the common people in contempt.

    39
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute ThomasFrancisMeagher
    Favourite ThomasFrancisMeagher
    Report
    Jan 9th 2014, 5:55 PM

    Two of the Pylon routes in question run through Special Areas of Conservation: the Comeragh Mountains and Slievenamon. Much work has been undertaken by Waterford CoCo in the development of tourism in the area, such as the recently launched hiking routes in the Comeraghs & the Deise Greenway cycle path. South Tipp CoCo is also seeking to promote tourism in the Suir Valley, along the former Towpath on the River Suir between Carrick-on-Suir and Kilsheelan. Surely such initiatives would suffer were pylons to be constructed in either or both of the aforementioned areas?

    Why did EirGrid not consider an underwater power route from (a) Knockraha to Great Island via the Cork/Waterford coast or (b) from Knockraha to Dublin as part of its study area? Given that the company wishes to construct a 600-kilometre underwater inter-connector from Great Island to France, it appears incongruous that the same consideration would not be given by an Irish company for one of its proposed Irish projects?

    It has been stated on more than one occasion by both EirGrid and Minister Rabbitte that this power line is necessary for economic development. How then did the country prosper during the late 90s and into the mid-2000s when this route was not in place and full employment was achieved?

    Do the right thing & put these pylons off-shore or underground.

    101
    See 2 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Cillian_Durkin
    Favourite Cillian_Durkin
    Report
    Jan 9th 2014, 5:58 PM

    Things like this also damage out image as a pristine environment to produce food in, damages our tourism.

    Easier to add the greasy penny to the till instead of looking at the bigger picture.

    Eirgrid suits have demanded it and the Govt. here will take “hard decisions” and let the bigger picture go hang.

    We have a chance to avoid the mistakes that other countries now wish they could avoided and plan to do so in future.

    57
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Aunty Simmonite
    Favourite Aunty Simmonite
    Report
    Jan 9th 2014, 6:38 PM

    There is no case made for these pylons as they will be used to export power to places who have decided not to destroy their own countryside with wind turbines and pylons. Nor has a case been made that they will create employment here after the few construction jobs run out. If new power lines were needed then the cost of burying them is an extra 3% [ estimated and disputed, so what] on our bills which pales into insignificance with the subsides and carbon taxes that we pay out already. The sheer size of these pylons and their associated wind turbines is beyond the comprehension of the lay person, for Dublin dwellers think of Liberty Hall and then try to imagine something 3 times it’s height, then imagine what hundreds of them would look like in the Phoenix Park or outside your front door.
    They will not be coming anywhere near me.

    42
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute ThomasFrancisMeagher
    Favourite ThomasFrancisMeagher
    Report
    Jan 9th 2014, 5:56 PM

    I hope to look back with pride in future years that we are the people who put a stop to Eirgrid’s destruction of our environment & heritage. It might be too late for Georgian Dublin & Woodquay but it’s not too late to stop these unnecessary pylons from permanently destroying our countryside. Make no mistake about it, this infrastructure isn’t being built for the benefit of the Irish people but for the benefit of a few well connected business people who hope to do well out of selling wind power into the UK backed by subsidies & support from their friends in the Irish Govt.
    The golden circle is alive & well. These Govt officials will be appointed to the boards of the organisations they facilitate to bully the Irish people as soon as their political careers end. It’s sickening.

    You can be sure that the brief that Eirgrid’s engineers got was to find the cheapest way to erect this infrastructure & this is what they did. Well maybe it’s time they went back to the drawing board & looked for the best way to build it & I have have no doubt that they will find that going underground & off-shore is the best way. Saving money in the short run at the cost of destroying rural communities is not good business & will be resisted at every step by people who care about our country & see Ireland as not just an economy but a society.

    57
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Pauline Harney Keogh
    Favourite Pauline Harney Keogh
    Report
    Jan 9th 2014, 5:21 PM

    Put them underground and put the proposed wind farms off shore.

    57
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Joe Valentine
    Favourite Joe Valentine
    Report
    Jan 9th 2014, 5:29 PM

    If you’re willing to pay for them then sure, why not? I ain’t! But sure it doesn’t make the slightest bit of difference how loudly the bungalow warriors shout. These pylons are going up, so are the wind turbines including the one in Offaly.

    19
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Brendan Greene
    Favourite Brendan Greene
    Report
    Jan 9th 2014, 5:30 PM

    Pauline, the real problem with both those ideas is that it will at least double, if not treble the cost. Take offshore wind, for example. The turbines have to be constructed of much stronger, more expensive materials and construction and maintainance is much more difficult and expensive.
    As regards pylons, under grounding has its own problems. It is more expensive to do and fault tracing is much more time consuming and expensive. This is the reason why pylons are the norm wprldwide even in areas of outstanding beauty.

    16
    See 6 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Aunty Simmonite
    Favourite Aunty Simmonite
    Report
    Jan 9th 2014, 5:41 PM

    The cost of burying the lines will add 3% to our bills according to government figures, but they are not needed in the first place.

    36
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Joe Valentine
    Favourite Joe Valentine
    Report
    Jan 9th 2014, 5:49 PM

    3% extra for the cables is nonsense. I don’t give a feck who said it. That is just a pure out and out lie.

    30
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Pauline Harney Keogh
    Favourite Pauline Harney Keogh
    Report
    Jan 9th 2014, 6:14 PM

    Why should the Irish people allow our beautiful country to be destroyed by wind farms and pylon corridors to support the UK’s need for more energy?

    40
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Kevin Landers
    Favourite Kevin Landers
    Report
    Jan 9th 2014, 6:15 PM

    That figure is absolute nonsense. Educate yourself and dont believe everything you read!!!

    10
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Aunty Simmonite
    Favourite Aunty Simmonite
    Report
    Jan 9th 2014, 6:41 PM

    If it cost 10% more to bury cables it is still less than we shell out for all the green scams. Look at your car tax, then look at your lecky bill now look at your car tax again and ask yourself WTF.

    14
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Graham Young
    Favourite Graham Young
    Report
    Jan 10th 2014, 4:40 PM

    My question is why exactly should the Irish people pay 3% when we’re not actually the consumer? Put them underground and pass on the cost who’s using the power

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Aunty Simmonite
    Favourite Aunty Simmonite
    Report
    Jan 9th 2014, 5:20 PM

    “Recently, (the cities of) Kolding and Sønderborg decided to not erect further wind turbines (in their 500 km2+ jurisdictions) until the uncertainty about their impact on neighbours is settled”, announced Danish television TVSyd (1).

    Kolding is Denmark’s 7th largest city with 57,000 inhabitants. Its jurisdiction extends 605 km2 and includes a total of 89,000 inhabitants (76,000 for Sønderborg).

    Adds Dr Mauri Johansson, EPAW’s spokesman for Scandinavia: “During the last 12 months, several smaller municipalities had done the same, in spite of strong pressure from government. They are not satisfied with the noise regulations, and demand that independent studies (i.e. objective ones) be done concerning the effects of wind turbines on health.

    46
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul Somers
    Favourite Paul Somers
    Report
    Jan 9th 2014, 5:45 PM

    Here is a actual report http://www.bioinitiative.org/ written by scientists, clearly showing the EMF effects of overhead wires.

    In addition It’s a long read but it’s definitely in your interest to read this. It relates in particular, to those of you who are living in town’s or cities where you’re under the assumption that all this hot air about Windfarms won’t affect you as you won’t see them..

    So you’ve no need to get involved in all this crap..Right?.. You’ve enough on your plate to deal with without us lot adding to it, besides, it can’t affect me at all, you may say..Can it?..

    Yes..
    It can and does, as yet again, your little sneaky PSO levy on the back of your ESB bill has gone up.
    Costing you more to live in your home.

    Electric Ireland has courageously stepped forward and like a true martyr they’ve absorbed a certain amount of the hit on your behalf, (Google it. Price rise 2014)….stating that costs to produce your electricity has risen.
    But neglect to tell you why, how and who’s associated with these rising costs.

    Well, read this, and you’ll have a better understanding, as it sums it all up for you, with hard facts and definitive figures..

    As yet again, we rely on facts from the pissed off British and Scottish public through their media, as they’ve had windfarms for longer than us here in Ireland, we’re learning from their well proclaimed mistakes.

    Make no mistake about it people, Windfarms ARE affecting us all financially..now. And it seems that it can only get worse.. or am I wrong in my assumption?.. that bills just seem to go one way in this Country..
    UP.. http://www.jmt.org/stuart-young-report.asp

    49
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Aunty Simmonite
    Favourite Aunty Simmonite
    Report
    Jan 9th 2014, 5:56 PM

    Offshore wind €156 MWh
    Onshore wind €95 MWh
    Conventional power €30 MWh
    Approximate figure, European Wholesale market.

    17
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute patrick
    Favourite patrick
    Report
    Jan 9th 2014, 5:33 PM

    They should put the wind turbines underground also.

    43
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Jarlath Murphy
    Favourite Jarlath Murphy
    Report
    Jan 9th 2014, 5:34 PM

    I always check out the pylons when on holiday….just after the Cathedrals

    41
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Aunty Simmonite
    Favourite Aunty Simmonite
    Report
    Jan 9th 2014, 5:42 PM

    Who owns the wind farms for which this grid is being built?

    29
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Aunty Simmonite
    Favourite Aunty Simmonite
    Report
    Jan 9th 2014, 5:40 PM

    As wind power fails to deliver in cold weather when needed most it has to be backed up with conventional power[ that is power sources that actually deliver] There is no mention of back up power being built to support this latest stage of the scam, and we must wonder why.

    23
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Joe Valentine
    Favourite Joe Valentine
    Report
    Jan 9th 2014, 5:48 PM

    When is the last time the wind has not been blowing on the west coast in winter? You keep on going about how turbines don’t work in Scandinavia but you forget we have the Atlantic and the trade winds.

    15
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Aunty Simmonite
    Favourite Aunty Simmonite
    Report
    Jan 9th 2014, 5:59 PM

    Wind turbine gearbox failure is now becoming widespread after 5-7 years. The only thing that wind power delivers is massive subsidy to those involved in the scam.

    20
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Aunty Simmonite
    Favourite Aunty Simmonite
    Report
    Jan 9th 2014, 6:01 PM

    One Thorium reactor would provide all our power needs and is much more advanced than present nuclear.

    17
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Cillian_Durkin
    Favourite Cillian_Durkin
    Report
    Jan 9th 2014, 6:45 PM

    It would but they aren’t ready for use yet.

    12
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mitch Connor
    Favourite Mitch Connor
    Report
    Jan 9th 2014, 6:07 PM

    Tourism was always one of the sillier objections.

    Anyone ever go on holiday to an area that has electricity?
    - if Yes, then pylons were not an issue.

    Sillyness.

    14
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute andrew
    Favourite andrew
    Report
    Jan 9th 2014, 6:17 PM

    Quite right. Who can deny the pleasure of driving under and past networks of pylons. And there is nothing better in this world than sitting out on a summer’s day under a buzzing pylon enjoying a picnic (though, funnily enough people appear not to have come round to appreciating this quite yet)

    27
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Aunty Simmonite
    Favourite Aunty Simmonite
    Report
    Jan 9th 2014, 6:21 PM

    Pylons are an essential part of our infrastructure but the new lot proposed are being financed by the public for the benefit of those involved in the wind power scam just as the inter connector to the UK was. It is no coincidence that Sir Reginald Sheffield who gets a handout of £1000 a day for his turbines is the father-in-law of the British PM. We need to know who is getting the money in Ireland

    22
    See 3 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mitch Connor
    Favourite Mitch Connor
    Report
    Jan 9th 2014, 6:33 PM

    Moronic response Andrew.

    Par for your course so.

    6
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Cillian_Durkin
    Favourite Cillian_Durkin
    Report
    Jan 9th 2014, 6:47 PM

    For a lot of Germans and others who come here because of our maintained natural beauty then things like this are very important.

    Pylons are now viewed as something best suited to the 1980′s and others are moving away from them.

    21
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Norman Hunter
    Favourite Norman Hunter
    Report
    Jan 9th 2014, 6:56 PM

    Mitch, clearly the art of sarcasm is lost on you.

    15
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Hank Schrader
    Favourite Hank Schrader
    Report
    Jan 9th 2014, 5:21 PM

    Pylons are going to happen whether we like it or not. That or we sit and moan in 20 years as to why they didn’t plan for this 20 years ago..

    14
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Martin Bishop
    Favourite Martin Bishop
    Report
    Jan 9th 2014, 5:26 PM

    I suppose the same argument could have been used for previously proposals for nuclear power in Ireland,

    But look, it never happened and given the way larger countrys are going by starting to get rid of nuclear power (Germany, Japan etc) it will likely never happen in Ireland

    35
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute ThomasFrancisMeagher
    Favourite ThomasFrancisMeagher
    Report
    Jan 9th 2014, 5:59 PM

    Eirgrid & their political puppets love to portray those opposed to their plans as NIMBY’s but that is far from the truth. I don’t live near one of these proposed routes but I care deeply about Ireland & it’s environment & as far as I am concerned the whole country is my back yard. Every pylon Eirgrid try to erect will be opposed & not just by locals of that area but by people from all over Ireland, whether Eirgrid’s first attempt to steamroll the people of Ireland is in Louth, Mayo or Wexford I’ll be driving up from Waterford to lend my support & so will thousands of others & Eirgrid will see their costs escalate fast. So Eirgrid do the right thing & stop your bullying of rural Ireland & put these lines underground or off-shore.

    43
    See 2 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Harry Webb
    Favourite Harry Webb
    Report
    Jan 9th 2014, 10:12 PM

    Hank isn’t Ireland worth fighting for in these matters? Why allow massive companies destroy our environment? This is imperialism at its worst!

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute phunkyboy
    Favourite phunkyboy
    Report
    Jan 9th 2014, 10:18 PM

    That’s true the fallout is going to be massive they won’t go ahead with it.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul Lanigan
    Favourite Paul Lanigan
    Report
    Jan 9th 2014, 7:33 PM

    80% of tourists who come to Ireland never leave the capital. 80% of the 10% who do, go to Kerry, & Galway. So their impact on tourism will be negligible.

    Besides can shit holes like Offaly get any uglier?

    13
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Harry Webb
    Favourite Harry Webb
    Report
    Jan 9th 2014, 10:18 PM

    What rubbish Paul! Every time is go home, with friends or family we hire a car, after a period in Dublin to the Western counties!

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Dee4
    Favourite Dee4
    Report
    Jan 9th 2014, 6:53 PM

    cant imagine many tourists make decisions based on the amount of pylons in a country on the other hand they might have something to say about the bungalow and mcmansion puke the spoils the countryside.

    11
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Robert Barker
    Favourite Robert Barker
    Report
    Jan 9th 2014, 5:53 PM

    Conrad hotel Dublin workers not paid any extra for working Christmas Day and New Year’s Day is this the norm now in Ireland ?? Just another day ….

    9
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute phunkyboy
    Favourite phunkyboy
    Report
    Jan 9th 2014, 10:16 PM

    This just isn’t right , this is our country not those arseh@les in the dail or big business to decide on its future. Don’t let it happen for the sake of your kids. I’ve seen wind farms destroy the very landscape that I once loved as a child and now it’s scarred by these monstrosities that 20 years from now probably will be obsolete and gone but their ugliness will remain forever. Short term gain long term pain.

    8
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Maurice Dodd
    Favourite Maurice Dodd
    Report
    Jan 9th 2014, 11:40 PM

    So these huge pylons are being erected in our pristine country side to supply power to england? I wonder would they string them along the lake district??not a chance..

    7
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.

Leave a commentcancel

 
JournalTv
Video Player is loading.
Current Time 0:00
Duration 0:00
Loaded: 0%
Stream Type LIVE
Remaining Time 0:00
 
1x
    • descriptions off, selected
    • captions off, selected
      Next upNext up:
      News in 60 seconds