A new bungalow has been built in Clondalkin in West Dublin with an electricity pole jutting through the roof.
A house which is part of a new development for settled travellers has been built around an Electricity Supply Board (ESB) pole. Until recently the electricity pole was live and carrying ten thousand volts.
It gives shocking new meaning to the term 'modern house with all mod cons'.
The ESB claim that they discovered the pole just last week. Operations Manager Andy Hanson says the safety implications were horrendous.
I haven't seen the likes of this my twenty years working for ESB.
Within an hour of discovering the pole, the ESB had cut off the electricity supply. They will now move in to begin the process of dismantling the pole.
The County Council claims that the urgent need to finish the housing meant that they couldn't wait for the ESB to remove the pole. Billy Coman of South Dublin County Council says that it is regrettable that the ESB did not take any action to cut off the power. He claims that the builders were operating within safe practices which would not interfere with the power supply.
Local Travellers also have their say on the stupidity of building a house around a pole.
I think it's stupid to have a pole coming through a house. The council thinks Travelling People would live in anything.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 2 July 1998. The reporter is Roisin Duffy.
