Brendan Smith warns of falling trees, calls for grid resilience
Brendan Smith warned about the recurring danger of falling trees and called for urgent investment to make the electricity and telecommunications grids resilient. He said constituents across West Cavan, South Leithram, Monaghan and Cavan have suffered annual damage to ESV transmission lines and that many elderly people lack landlines or broadband, leaving emergency pendant systems ineffective.
He described yearly incidents in West Cavan and Deputy Eamon Scanlon's South Leithram area where falling trees interfere with and damage ESV transmission lines. He said constituents from Monaghan and Cavan reported no landlines or broadband, which renders pendant emergency call systems useless for isolated elderly people.
He urged a very robust approach to the proper maintenance of forests, whether publicly owned or on private land, and called for upgrades to the electricity grid and telecommunications networks. He said there must be major government investment, alongside public utilities, to ensure the energy grid and telecommunications grid are up to standard to literally weather future storms.
He repeated the need for properly planned tree corridors and said discussions on the corridor have been frustrating. He said the Minister of Agriculture has met with him and others, and he called for engagement with Quilta, private farm owners, private forestry owners and the ESP to create a single-focused, comprehensive programme to protect the grid from falling trees.
He noted a positive outcome in the degree to which communities rallied during the storm and argued that community resilience needs to be institutionalised and resourced. He said he will keep a focus on progress and wants action on tree corridors and grid resilience before the next winter season.
Immediate local impact
He described yearly incidents in West Cavan and Deputy Eamon Scanlon's South Leithram area where falling trees interfere with and damage ESV transmission lines. He said constituents from Monaghan and Cavan reported no landlines or broadband, which renders pendant emergency call systems useless for isolated elderly people.
Infrastructure and investment
He urged a very robust approach to the proper maintenance of forests, whether publicly owned or on private land, and called for upgrades to the electricity grid and telecommunications networks. He said there must be major government investment, alongside public utilities, to ensure the energy grid and telecommunications grid are up to standard to literally weather future storms.
Tree corridors and stakeholder engagement
He repeated the need for properly planned tree corridors and said discussions on the corridor have been frustrating. He said the Minister of Agriculture has met with him and others, and he called for engagement with Quilta, private farm owners, private forestry owners and the ESP to create a single-focused, comprehensive programme to protect the grid from falling trees.
Community resilience and next steps
He noted a positive outcome in the degree to which communities rallied during the storm and argued that community resilience needs to be institutionalised and resourced. He said he will keep a focus on progress and wants action on tree corridors and grid resilience before the next winter season.
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Transcript
Taoiseach, I agree with colleagues who have spoken there about the need to prepare for the next storm, for the next major weather event. For a number of years I have been highlighting the need and the dangers posed by falling trees every year. My own West Cavan area, along with Deputy Eamon Scanlon's area in South Leithram as well, have for many years on an annual basis suffered due to trees falling and interfering and damaging ESV transmission lines. We need a very robust approach to proper maintenance of forests, be they in public ownership or private land owners. We also want to ensure that the electricity grid is upgraded, that it's more resilient and allied to that, we need to ensure that our telecommunications networks, that their grid is resilient as well. I have constituents on to me today, both from Monaghan and Cavan, who have no landlines, who have no broadband and a lot of elderly people living on their own, who depend on the pendant and that button that they can press if they're in any difficulty. That doesn't work, that emergency call system, if they don't have a landline or broadband. So this is extremely urgent. There must be major government investment, along with the public utilities, in ensuring that those grid, be it the energy grid or the telecommunications grid, that they are up to standard to literally weather any future storms. Thank you, I can call it. Deputy Smit spoke about the corridor and the need for tree corridors, and that has been the most frustrating discussions I've had so far. But again, I've said to the Department of Agriculture, the Minister of Agriculture met with me, with others, we do need to improve the resilience of the grid. And that means proper tree corridors. We need to engage with Quilta, private farm owners, private forestry owners, and also with the ESP. And once and for all, we need a comprehensive programme to protect the grid from falling trees. It seems elementary, but it has defied different, and the issue is the lack of a single focus. Different people are saying it's somebody else's problem. But I'm keeping a focus on this, and I want to make sure that progress is made before the next winter season, in regard to the tree corridors, and the necessity of that. One interesting positive outcome of the storm, if one could even say that, is the degree to which communities rallied. And there's a very strong community resilience in Ireland. We now need to institutionalise that a bit more, and by that I mean we need to resource communities. ...