We believe Eirgrid are basing their so called “consultation” process on the Decide, Announce & Defend (DAD) approach. This strategy has been used for decades in Industry and Government as a way to calculate risk or controversy on a project, in relation to financial gain. In Eirgrids case they are making it look like the public has an input into each project, when in reality we dont. In fact Graham Parker told us in July that unless some very serious constraint came up, our corridor was the chosen one. This was months before the announcement was made on the 7th of October. Now the corridor is announced the plan is to ignore all protests from communities and push this decision through to completion at any cost. The problem for Eirgrid is that this approach is now failing all over the world. Because of Social Media people now have the ability to communicate in ways unimaginable just a couple of decades ago. Eirgrid are trying to keep the lid on their can of worms, by conducting their “consultation process” to very small groups of people at a time and stretching it out over many hours in each location in order to weaken the people power and persuade people into believing them. Last night was a clear proof of this when they could not handle the large influx of people arriving at six oclock as planned, demanding a public meeting, with an opportunity for the community to collectively hear Eirgrid out. They refused. They refused because this was a far cry from their usual agenda which includes cups of tea and biscuits, treats and gifts for the kids and smiling representatives telling small groups of people about all the benefits that their projects will bring to the communities. Although we just went on an observational basis yesterday, their strategies were already falling apart without any real pressure. This was demonstrated by Graham Parker saying over and over again to Paul, “you are threatening me, you are threatening me” when he could not answer the questions put before him. A member of the public told Graham, “Paul is not threatening you, he just wants answers to his questions”. Graham was then whisked away and replaced by other members of staff, who carried on with the rehearsed agenda. We observed many hand signals and repeated phrases amongst the staff, to try and keep the public as calm as possible, but despite their efforts there were many angry people there. We believe Eirgrid employees have no name tags or identification in order to confuse the public and make identification of individuals more difficult. A small blonde woman who replaced Graham, had a difficult time to find answers to our questions, and in the end kept on repeating something like “They will go up, they will go up, they will go up”, her intentions seemed to be to intimidate us, but it sounded more like a mantra to reassure herself. Paul looked at her for a long moment and said, Oh no they wont. The truth is Eirgrid, your can of worms has tipped over and the birds are coming to feed. If you are to have any dealings with Eirgrid this is a must read. It gives true and clear insights into Eirgrids dealings with the Irish People. oireachtasdebates.oireachtas.ie/Debates%20Authoring/DebatesWebPack.nsf/committeetakes/AGJ2012022100006?opendocument#
Posted on: Fri, 18 Oct 2013 18:58:32 +0000
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