Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 12 November 2025

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy

Review of Storm Éowyn and Storm Preparedness: Discussion

2:00 am

Ms Karen McGeough:

As the report showed, 8.5% of the faults across the country had forestry as a primary cause. I will explain how we measured this. We looked at damage assessments carried out by more than 1,000 people throughout the storm and we have data on where forestry was referenced. Absolutely as Mr. Tarrant and others have said, this is concentrated in the Longford and Sligo area. This has led to us engaging with the Department on the development of legislation to put forestry corridors on a statutory footing. I will pass to Mr. Brady to discuss some of the detail on this.