Many of Donegal's best-known musicians and artists will be among those objecting to a proposed 110 km power line through some of the most scenic areas of the county when a Bord Pleanala oral hearing opens tomorrow in Dungloe.
The board has set aside eight days to listen to the arguments from both sides. Among those backing the ESB plans are the Letterkenny Chamber of Commerce and Donegal County Council, which granted planning permission in May.
The objectors are led by a campaign group, Alternative to Pylons (ATP), An Taisce, mountaineering groups and the Independent TD, Mr Tom Gildea.
Artists who have supported the ATP campaign include Enya, Clannad's Maire Brennan, Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh of Altan and poet Cathal O Searcaigh.
"If you alter the landscape of Donegal, you alter the whole imagination of the people. There is an image of Donegal worldwide, and the tourism potential which is just beginning to deliver could be destroyed by this," said the ATP spokeswoman, Patricia Sharkey.
The power line would start south of Glenties and loop around the north-west coastal towns through Dungloe and Gweedore, before circling back into Letterkenny. It would consist of 550 double wooden poles, 18 metres high, and 80 steel towers of between 12 and 15 metres.
This new 110 KV loop line would replace two existing 38 KV lines, which the ESB says are 40 years old and cannot meet today's electricity needs. All sides agree that electricity infrastructure in Donegal needs to be upgraded, but the ATP insists the line should go underground. Ms Sharkey said the ESB was motivated by profit alone in insisting on overhead lines.
The ESB spokesman, Mr Michael Kelly, was adamant this was not the case. "Lines of this type do not go underground anywhere. Over 98 per cent of transmission lines in the world go over ground. The only place they go underground is in urban areas," he said.
This is because of the cost and the difficulty of repairing underground lines, he said. The proposed overhead line would cost £10 million, but to put it underground would cost £100 million. The price of electricity in the Republic was among the lowest in Europe. "Only by building lines in an efficient way can we keep prices down," he said.
Mr Kelly said there would be power cuts for extended periods with underground lines, as it would take weeks to repair faults. He rejected an ATP suggestion that computer technology could be used to detect faults quickly. "The business district of Auckland in New Zealand was left without supply for two months last year when they had faults in all four underground cables," he said.