Residents’ plight must be heeded

The fears of the residents in and around the area of the Derrybrien landslide in south Galway are very real because of the imminent threat posed to their property.

Over the past two weeks the landslide has moved relentlessly to the stage where it endangers roads and a bridge, with the possibility of the village itself being cut off.

Despite the fact that temporary barriers are in place to try to retard the slide, it is unfortunate that preemptive action was not undertaken when the movement was first observed.

Even now, whatever resources are needed to obviate an even greater disaster must be put in place because, according to experts, the next 24 hours could be critical.

Construction of a wind farm is underway in the locality by Hibernian Wind Energy, a subsidiary of the ESB. While the cause of the slide is so far unidentified, if it transpires that the development contributed to it, there must be implications for its continuation.

It is essential that the Government display a greater urgency towards this current situation than was evident in relation to the recent landslide at Pollathomas in Co Mayo.

On that occasion, despite 40 families having had to be evacuated and the damage caused to several houses, bridges and roads, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was not in too much of a hurry to visit the site of the devastation.

In both the cases of Pollathomas and Derrybrien, where there are 35 houses, the calamities that were visited on the residents were, quite obviously, outside their control.

The question of appropriate compensation and the urgency of carrying out remedial work on local infrastructure need to be attended to expeditiously.

Those affected by the landslide should receive similar consideration as those families in Dublin who were

affected by flooding last year. The fact that the area is far removed from the capital should not entail a lesser response from the Government.