Fitzmaurice: Falling trees cause more power failures after mild storm: "It's not acceptable - this issue needs to be taken by the scruff of the neck once and for all"

Independent Ireland TD Michael Fitzmaurice has called on the Government to take immediate action to prevent recurring power outages in the West of Ireland, following what he described as a “light storm” that nonetheless left residents without electricity once again.

Speaking in the aftermath of storm Floris, Fitzmaurice said the Ballinlough area had again seen electricity lines fall, leaving homes without power just six months after new infrastructure had been installed.

“This is not acceptable,” he said. “People who were left without power for 15 or 16 days during the last storm are now suffering again after a mere blow of wind. It is disgusting.”

The Roscommon-Galway TD has called on Minister Darragh O'Brien to issue a clear instruction on tree cutting, claiming that insufficient tree-cutting near power lines was at the root of the problem.

“The machines have already been in there cutting, evidently they did not do the job right. They should have cut back enough. The ESB now needs to take this by the scruff of the neck and once and for all decide what they're doing and what they're not doing,” he said.

Calling on Minister O’Brien to issue direct instructions to the utility company, Fitzmaurice urged the Government to “forget about what people are objecting to” and take decisive action to remove all trees near to power lines, they must be taken out it's that simple, whatever the distance is required get it done to put an end to this once and for all"

“It's way past time that a stop is put to this codswallop,” he said. “Get out there and cut them trees and this will not happen again.”

He said the people of the west were continuing to bear the brunt of failed policies and warned that unless urgent decisions were made, further outages would follow.

Fitzmaurice said: “It is sickening to see new power lines that were only put up six months ago flattened again today. When are we going to cop on as a country and put people before everything else?”