Clare Fine Gael TD Joe Cooney is claiming that restrictive forestry legislation contributed significantly to the scale of power outages witnessed across Ireland during Storm Éowyn on January 24th.
Deputy Cooney will be raising the matter in Dáil Éireann on Wednesday morning after he was one of four TDs selected by the Ceann Comhairle to ask questions during Topical Issues.
The Clare TD will be asking the Department of Agriculture to review the Forestry Standards Manual as a matter of urgency given the impact of recent storms on public roads, utilities and powerlines.
In particular, he will be highlighting the setback distances from overhead powerlines and asking if the Department will consider the introduction of a separate felling licence application system to facilitate urgent management of the setback distances from powerlines.
According to Deputy Cooney, “Extensive power outages were experienced across County Clare and the west of Ireland during the recent storm with many electricity and fibre broadband lines being downed due to their proximity to forestry. We need to urgently review the legislation that governs the ability of forestry and land owners to fell trees that are located to power lines to prevent a similar situation from arising.”
A Minister from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine will be present in the Dáil to respond to Deputy Cooney’s questions.
Meanwhile, the Clare TD is asking the Government to introduce a brief extension of the deadline for hedge-cutting given the scale of destruction to roadside trees and hedgerows due to the impact of Storm Éowyn.
“Cutting, grubbing, burning or other destruction of vegetation” growing in any hedge or ditch between March 1 and August 31 is forbidden under the Wildlife Act 1976.
In a written request to Minister of State Christopher O’Sullivan, Deputy Cooney commented, “Many landowners are facing a challenge to remediate the consequences of the storm and to make safe the trees and hedgerows that are proximate to roads, houses and outbuildings. This is obviously having an impact on their ability to undertake their usual maintenance programme in advance of the closed season on 1st March.”
He continued, “I wholly understand the reasoning behind such restrictions, including allowing for birds to nest safely and without disturbance. In the aftermath of such an unprecedented weather event, however, I am asking for some latitude in the interests of road safety and that the Government will consider my request for a 1–2-week extension of the deadline.”
