Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I raise the issue of damage to power lines, particularly in recent storms. In County Leitrim, there are large areas of afforestation. Where there is afforestation, power lines go through it. As part of licence conditions, forestry is supposed to be kept 10 m back from the power lines. Often, that does not happen and it is not being enforced. There are cases of trees coming down on top of power lines. People were out of power sometimes for the best part of a week in the recent storm. This has been a continuous problem. The guidelines are that the forestry be kept 10 m back. People do not adhere to them and there seems to be no enforcement. Electric Ireland is trying to get in to deal with this, take away the trees and sort this out but it simply cannot do so because it does not have access. There needs to be a review of the licensing mechanism for afforestation to ensure that critical infrastructure such as power lines is protected. Dozens of people were out of electricity and many businesses were closed for over a week in the recent storm. This will be a problem across the whole country as more forests grow higher and take down these lines.

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