Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is not only today that Deputy Cooney has brought this matter to the attention of the Dáil because he has been working diligently on the issue. The Deputy has worn a path to Agriculture House and has been on to me and my officials. I recognise that and his sterling work on behalf of his constituents.

This is an important matter. It is also of grave concern to our colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Dooley, who has also been making representations about this matter. As Deputy Cooney correctly stated, the existing legislation and corridors have failed, which is simply not good enough.

Last week, the Ministers, Deputies Heydon and Darragh O'Brien, and I met senior people from the ESB to discuss the corridors that are in place and what needs to be created in the future to ensure that situations such as we had will not occur again. It will involve, we imagine, changing legislation. Everybody believes the ESB has far-reaching legislative powers to go into land and do what is required to protect the power lines but it does not. New legislation potentially needs to be brought in. It would, of course, go through the Houses of the Oireachtas swiftly as everybody would support it because it would be for the betterment of the people of the country.

The incoming Government showed great foresight in the programme for Government, before we ever had this storm, in recognising that the protection of power lines and telecommunication lines was of massive importance. The Government's commitment to protecting those lines is in the programme for Government. We have seen the devastation caused in the Deputy's constituency and throughout the country, with people left in awful situations and people with sick children and elderly people left without heat and without light in their homes. It was an awful situation.

Deputy Cooney is correct to raise this issue. All I can tell him is that we are working on it. We will continue to work with all the stakeholders to address the issues we now face, including those in relation to forestry and power lines. At the centre of these considerations are the wider good and the need to take into account the needs of those landowners who have committed to forestry and will do so in the future.

I want to make it clear that people who already have a clear-fell or thinning licence along with a road licence can commence their clean-up operations straightaway. Across the country, these clean-up operations are already under way and the sector is doing all it can to meet the massive task we face.

When we were meeting the ESB last Wednesday evening, up to 50 harvesters were out working and contracted by the ESB to engage in that work. They are working along the existing corridors. What we have to do, and it is in the programme for Government, is to enhance those corridors, which will obviously lead to a situation where forest owners or landowners may have to be compensated for the encroachment on their land. As I stated, however, this will be for the greater good and to try to safeguard the security of energy to people's homes. At the end of the day, that is of paramount importance.

It was also highlighted to the ESB that the practice of trimming branches near power lines along the roadside is not good enough because they will grow again. We have to be more aggressive in our approach in ensuring that we protect the power lines.

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