ESB increasing 'access officers' who will work with landowners on forestry - minister
ESB Networks (ESBN) is continuing to work with Coillte and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) to identify which parts of its network are "at highest future risk".
According to the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment, Darragh O’Brien, ESB-N has also "significantly progressed remedial works to refurbish the network".
Minister O'Brien had previously stated that the "unprecedented outages caused by Storm Éowyn exposed critical vulnerabilities" associated with unmanaged vegetation and commercial forestry close to electricity infrastructure.
A bill is currently going through the Houses of the Oireachtas to enable the government to invest €1.5 billion in ESB-N to develop the electricity grid over the next five years.
The Fine Gael TD, Grace Boland, had asked Minister O'Brien to detail "the measures being taken to ensure grid resilience in vulnerable areas during the 2025-26 winter period".
According to Minister O'Brien under the ESB-N Winter 2025 Resilience Plan emergency stocks of spare parts and materials are being replenished and "timber harvesters have been procured and mobilised".
The minister added: "Staffing levels and available contractor resources are being increased through provision of targeted training programmes.
"In addition, my department has progressed the issue of permits for skilled workers from outside the EU to advance urgent forestry work".
Minister O'Brien also highlighted that his department is currently "preparing legislation to enhance ESB-N’s powers to manage vegetation".
"ESB-N is also increasing the number of access officers who engage with landowners on forestry work," he added.
However farm organisations including the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) have warned that there is "a lot of concern" among farm foresters around proposed legislation in relation to forestry corridors for ESB overhead lines.
ESB
The Minister of State for forestry, horticulture and farm safety, Michael Healy-Rae, last week told the Dáil that the latest damage assessment maps show that 27,000 ha of forests were windblown, with 11,400 ha impacted in private forestry during Storm Eowyn.
According to the minister this equates to "approximately over 40 million trees blown down by that storm".
"Considerable damage was also caused to electricity lines and other infrastructure by the storms.
"To further speed up the process, we have allowed the use of both thinning and clear-fell licences in removing storm-damaged trees.
"Our data now shows that 77% of windblown trees already have a felling licence issued by my department," Minister Healy-Rae added.
He also told the Dáil that DAFM is continuing to "progress the introduction of a reconstitution scheme for storm-affected forest owners".
