Sinn Féin is due to table a bill outlining minimum forestry corridors for 'critical infrastructure'.

The party said the bill seeks to amend the Forestry Act 2014 to provide for the management of critical infrastructure corridors within forestry lands.

The proposal aims to establish minimum corridor widths for specified categories of critical infrastructure as currently outlined under the Forestry Standards Manual.

Critical infrastructure is defined as water mains, gas lines, and electricity lines of varying voltage capacities.

This bill also includes an increase for the minimum centre width corridor for power lines with a capacity of 10kV and 38kV from 20m to 55m.

Forestry

The proposed legislation will be brought before the Dáil on Tuesday by Sinn Féin spokesperson on agriculture, Martin Kenny and Sinn Féin TD Claire Kerrane.

"The biggest issue that ESB faced in restoring electricity was forestry where trees had fallen on power lines and the corridors for power lines were blocked for days. The corridors had to be cleared before any repairs could be done," Deputy Kenny said.

According to Deputy Kenny, this legislation "will prevent this happening in the future".

"Government promised to introduce legislation in relation to this and have failed to produce anything to date," he said.

Storms

Deputy Kerrane added: "We are introducing this Bill to once and for all end the cycle of trees falling on ESB wires, causing power outages to householders happening with almost every storm, it’s discussed in the aftermath, how awful it is, and then it happens again".

"If we do not have adequate setback distances that are set out and enforced, households will continue to suffer power outages – that is not acceptable.

"In my own area, I’ve seen this happen too many times and so, I am proud to bring forward a solution to it alongside my colleague Martin Kenny and I hope the government will support this legislation," she added.

Legislation

In a recent parliamentary question, Fianna Fáil TD Brendan Smith said it is "now a year and five months since Storm Éowyn wreaked havoc on this country".

"We were promised at that time that the government would take effective measures to implement the learnings from this storm," he said.

Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment Darragh O'Brien said the Electricity (Supply) (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2025, is being progressed by his department "as part of a wider programme of work to strengthen the resilience of Ireland's electricity network in the context of climate change and increasingly severe storms".

"The overarching objective is to ensure that overhead electricity networks and forestry can coexist in a manner that delivers a secure, reliable and climate-resilient electricity supply for homes, businesses and communities," he said.

"The updated draft heads of bill are currently being revised and the team in my department continues to engage, as a matter of priority, with stakeholders, in particular the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), but also ESB Networks, forestry representatives, landowner organisations and the Office of the Attorney General," the minister added.

Minister O'Brien said the legislation is "a priority", but expressed frustration at the pace of progress.

"It needs to move quicker but there are a lot of stakeholders. To be frank about it, this is being made more complex than it should be because we are respecting the views of other stakeholders," he said.

"The agreement with the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) that was in place, which was a relatively loose agreement on forestry management, needs to be updated and put in legislation.

"We are operating under the 1927 Act and grey areas have been identified with respect to right of access. We are bottoming those out now," the minister said.