Not so calm, after the storm

“The ESB and Uisce Éireann have a lot of answer for,” said the Cathaoirleach of Cavan County Council, Cllr T.P.O’Reilly, addressing the February monthly meeting of elected members where the agenda was dominated by the fall-out from Storm Éowyn.

Half the items tabled for discussion by councillors concerned measures that could, and should they suggested, have been put in place to mitigate against the impact of such weather events. Tens of thousands of homes, business and farms were left without water and electricity for days and in some cases weeks on end.

Much of the focus, and ire, was directed at the damage caused to powerlines by nearby trees, and the lack of back-up solutions such as generators at local water treatment plant facilities.

The county’s First Citizen stated that these measures should have been in place a decade before, and not only after what was one of the worst storms ever to lash the country.

While he and others voiced frustration, there was still plenty of praise for the immediacy of the response that ensued - including by ESB workers and Uisce Éireann crews - as well as emergency services, first responders and civil defence members, council staff and volunteers who set up hubs in their communities to support their neighbours.

Fianna Fáil’s John Paul Feeley tabled a multi-faceted motion asking that the government provide group water schemes with specific funding to buy generators; and that Uisce Éireann ensures there is an emergency power outlet at its eight treatment plants in the county.

He is also seeking an information campaign to encourage homeowners to remove trees located within falling distance from their homes; and that landowners, particularly Coillte and private forestry owners, be held accountable for damage to powerlines and roads due to fallen trees.

Cllr Feeley reacted with dismay at a suggestion by Independent Ireland’s Shane P. O’Reilly that an amnesty for tree felling be put in place. Cllr Feeley, who criticised the government for establishing a taskforce to look at managing forests damaged by storms and supporting foresters. He said that licensing was all that communities affected by afforestation had to ensure that forestry companies pay for any damage caused to local infrastructure.

He said that, since December 2023, there has been seven outages in one community in west Cavan. All had been caused by wind damage to trees, and one blackout lasted more than two days and affected water supplies to the local area.

West Cavan, he said, has become a “dumping ground for Sitka spruce” over the years.

Coillte, he went on to claim, are failing to abide by existing regulations on buffer zones.

His colleague Áine Smith supported Cllr Feeley’s motions, urging companies going forward to be more “proactive” in their approach.

She herself tabled two motions - again calling for generators to be provided at “all critical infrastructure”; and a need now to extend the time allowed for hedge cutting this year to deal with the aftermath of Storm Éowyn properly.

She said there were many areas where trees had been weakened by the high winds but had not yet fallen over. They continued to pose a risk, she said, and more time is required to assess these from a health and safety perspective.

Cllr Philip Brady (FF) agreed, adding that it was “nonsense” in this day and age to have trees growing near critical electricity wires where there is potential for damage to be caused.

Fine Gael’s Winston Bennett, whose own home was left without power for almost a week, praised the timely interventions of those Group Water Schemes, which had the foresight to bring in generators to help maintain supply.

“Whatever about electricity, you can live without, but it’s very hard to keep going if you’ve no water,” said the dairy farmer, who asked that the council write to the minister to ask that planning legislation be amended to allow for chimneys to be installed on new builds.

He said the damage caused by Storm Éowyn had been a “wake up call for a lot of people” and especially so in respect of banning chimneys from all newly built homes.

Cllr SP O’Reilly (II) was quick to point out on the forestry point that not all growers “are the same”, and there were many farmers now, who opted to plant their land as a potential pension, have now seen their investment all but wiped out.

“They couldn’t get felling licences because of constant objection,” he railed, before suggesting the amnesty, albeit with conditions.

However, he did admit, it had been a topic for discussion going back years, even to the time of Cllr Feeley’s late father Eddie, and that the plight of people living amidst afforestation may have somewhat “fallen on deaf ears”.

As regards the response effort, Cllr O’Reilly felt the defence forces could have been more involved, a point agreed with by Trevor Smith (FG), who asked why more council staff were not trained in the use of chainsaws. He added that the six-hour lifespan of a water treatment plant once power cuts out simply was “not near enough”.

Cllr Brendan Fay (Ind) feels that every home that relies solely on electric needs to be rewired properly to enable it to be hooked up to a generator if required; while Sinn Féin’s Noel Connell was critical of the government taking “two weeks’ holidays” in the middle of an emergency response.

Cllr Patricia Walsh (FF) heaped praise on the role played by community hubs in offering a lifeline to families; as did Cllr Damien Brady (SF), tuning in remotely. He also credited the work of his colleagues in the fire service and the response of local businesses in stepping up to help their communities. “How do we do things better? That’s what we have to be asking ourselves,” he told the meeting.

Cllr Carmel Brady (FG) put forward a motion asking that the council assist with the drawing up of a register of vulnerable people.

Director of Services Brendan Jennings informed the meeting to expect a national lead in respect to this.

Cllr T.P. O’Reilly said that statutory organisations such as Coillte and the ESB need to “start engaging” with landowners. He called into question the feasibility of providing grants to all to buy generators in future, but felt too that there should be some form of “gesture” to the wider public for being discommoded for so long, such as doing away with standing charges for electricity.

More trees will fall, he warned, with an “accident waiting to happen” come the next high wind or when foliage starts to return, putting added pressure on already weakened bows. He too foresees a costly situation where homes without chimneys will have to be readapted for ventilation in another 10 years’ time.

From the executive table, Director of Services Paddy Connaughton said, by the Sunday after the storm, over 80 per cent of blocked road routes had been cleared. The army were only required in times of national emergency, and chainsaw use was limited on grounds of health and safety.

Finally, extending hedge-cutting would require a derogation, he said.

Chief Executive Eoin Doyle was effusive in his praise for how organisations and statutory authorities co-ordinated their combined efforts, as well as those who supported the setting up of hubs.

“It was an effort we can all be proud of.”