The High Court has granted the Electricity Supply Board (ESB) an interlocutory injunction allowing it to enter a farm at Grange Beg, Boyle, to build part of the Flagford-Srananagh electricity transmission line. The order applies pending trial and is conditional on the line being erected in accordance with a valid planning permission.
Miss Justice Laffoy’s judgment, delivered on 23 April 2010, concerns a dispute with Michael and Martina Roddy, who live on the farm with their 10-year-old son. The judgment identifies Michael Roddy as the registered owner. The planned works require the ESB to erect one steel lattice tower and half of another on the lands, and string conductors and associated wires across 513 metres.
The ESB sought interim access under section 53(9) of the Electricity (Supply) Act 1927, which allows it to enter land to place an electric line where it is authorised to do so. The judge said the interim relief sought at the hearing was for the ESB alone; she did not decide EirGrid’s statutory entitlement or the extent of the ESB’s powers to operate lines over third-party land.
The couple had refused access under a wayleave notice served in February 2005. The judgment records that compensation remained in dispute, and that the defendants’ opposition was based primarily on alleged health risks. It also notes conflicting affidavits about a 2005 incident and its District Court outcome, which the judge said could not be resolved in this application. She did not determine the health evidence, saying those issues belonged at trial and that the merits of the line had been addressed in the planning process.
The defendants challenged the wayleave notice and the extension of planning permission. The judge found no serious issue about the notice’s validity after the ESB clarified the works. She said the validity of the 2009 planning extension could not be challenged in these proceedings; a challenge would have required judicial review within the statutory time limit. The court’s order therefore makes valid planning permission a condition of the interim relief.
Finding that the ESB had a strong case likely to succeed at trial, that damages would be an adequate remedy for the defendants, and that the balance of convenience favoured interim access, the judge granted the injunction. The permanent injunction and damages claims remain for trial. If the defendants ultimately succeed, the judgment says the ESB may have to remove the line and restore the land; the company also gave an undertaking as to damages.