Irish Examiner view: ESB made a costly mistake with this windfarm

The semi-state body had already racked up more than €17m in fines — and now it has to dismantle the windfarm it built

Onlookers view the devastation in the wake of the landslide at Derrybrien in 2003 which should have been a wake-up call to the ESB. Picture: Ray Ryan

The forced deconstruction of a windfarm on the grounds that its construction was environmentally destructive may seem like someone’s idea of a bad joke but that is exactly the position that the ESB finds itself in relation to Derrybrien windfarm in south Galway. 

The saga in the Sliabh Aughty mountains has been going on for years. While the original owners of the site gained planning permission for the wind farm between 1998 and 2003 when construction began it caused a massive landslide which should have forewarned the ESB that trouble lay ahead. 

The landslide occurred during construction of the 70-turbine farm in 2003, pushing thousands of cubic metres of peat down the mountain.

In 2019, the EU’s Court of Justice found Ireland was in breach of environmental safeguards in relation to the construction of the wind farm by a subsidiary company of the ESB. A €5m fine was imposed by the EU in 2020, as well as daily fines of €15,000 since — the total has now reached more than €17m.

Despite this, the ESB pursued the matter to An Bord Pleanála but was refused to grant ‘substitute consent’ (effectively a process to retrospectively regularise planning relating to environmental impact issues) for the windfarm. The ESB is a reputable semi-state body but this has been a long-running and costly mistake that should have been resolved sooner.