Farmers want to form tree-cutting groups to stop storm damage to electricity lines after Eowyn wreaked havoc

The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association (ICMSA) has criticized the inadequate maintenance of power lines, exposed by Storm Éowyn's aftermath of outages and damage. President Denis Drennan described the reliance on the ESB to manage vast power line infrastructure as delusional, highlighting the impracticality of their centralized approach given the increasing severity of storms. He advocated for local farmers to assist in maintaining hedgerows and monitoring poles as a feasible solution. The current system cannot cope with frequent severe weather, leading to prolonged power outages in rural areas.

ICMSA thinks that there's a really compelling and practical case for the ESB to enter agreements with willing local farmers to look after and maintain the hedgerows as well as monitoring the condition of poles.

We have to accept that the days of expecting the ESB to know every pole from Malin to Mizen and every boreen in between is just delusional and is going to get us into the kinds of situations that we see today.

Read at Irish Independent