MAINTENANCE of hedgegrows and trees overhanging power and communications cabling should be contracted out to local farmers, according to the
ICMSA.
Thousands of people across West Cork were left without power following Storm Éowyn, which saw power lines affected by branches and poles broken from strong winds – hundreds of thousands more were affected across the country, with many only just reconnected this week.
The idea that the ESB and other operators are capable of maintaining the vast network of poles and overhead wires that run across the country and through farmers’ fields is a ‘delusion’, according to ISMCA president Denis Drennan.
‘We have had a ‘reality check’ and that means accepting the need to change the system around power line management that Storm Éowyn so completely exposed as no longer feasible or effective,’ Drennan said.
A combination of ESB poles becoming brittle and the issue of ash dieback which has left thousands of diseased roadside ash trees unable to withstand strong winds puts rural communities at risk of repeated power outages as storms become more intense, he added, arguing that local farmers are best positioned to monitor the threat presented by overhanging trees.
‘We have to accept that the kind of intensity and frequency of these storms signals a change – and we have to change our preparation and response accordingly,’ he said.
‘ICMSA thinks that there’s a really compelling and practical case for the ESB to enter agreements with willing local farmers to look after and maintain the hedgerows as well as monitoring the condition of poles.’
Drennan pointed out that many farmers already carry out hedgerow maintenance within their farms on an annual basis, and monitoring and maintaining hedgerows under powerlines would be an extension of this practice.
‘Any removal of large trees, etc, would have to be carried out by trained personnel subject to the agreement of the landowner. But I think that the farmers themselves would be interested and we just have to accept that the days of expecting the ESB to know about every pole from Malin to Mizen and every boreen-in-between is just delusional.’
