Residents of the south Galway community of Derrybrien have called for a complete halt of the construction of a €60 million windfarm in the Slieve Aughty mountains following the landslide which occurred there 10 days ago.
Work has been suspended on the 71-turbine farm for a second week by its developers, the ESB subsidiary Hibernian Wind Energy, as efforts are made to investigate the cause of the landslide.
However, the residents of the village some three kilometres south of the site are "completely united" in opposing the project, and want to see work stopped altogether, said Mr Martin Collins, of the Derrybrien Concerned Residents' Association.
The residents aired their views at a meeting over the weekend, attended by more than 50 people living in the area.
"This community had been divided over this scheme before, but now there is 100 per cent support for it to be cancelled in the light of the risks posed by the landslide.
"People are fearful of what is going to happen when it rains," said Mr Collins.
The first heavy rain for several weeks began falling in Co Galway before lunchtime yesterday.
Galway County Council has endeavoured to stabilise the area by building dams to hold back the peat, much of which rolled into a gorge which is part of the Lough Cutra system.
The Shannon Regional Fisheries Board has been monitoring the situation, and has already removed some fish as a precautionary measure.
No one was injured when one kilometre of mountainside, 100 metres wide, rolled down through Coillte property on October 16th. However, over 60 contractors working on site had to be evacuated.
The contractors, mainly attached to Ascon, were employed on aspects of the 60-megawatt windfarm. Coillte personnel were also felling trees and constructing roads as part of the deal under which some 900 acres were sold to Saorgus Energy, and subsequently leased to Hibernian Wind Energy.
Hibernian Wind Energy is still carrying out investigations into the cause of the landslide and the general impact on the project. It says it has not yet come to a conclusion.
Galway County Council is also carrying out an inquiry. It has carried out an aerial survey and research in co-operation with engineers from NUI Galway.
The local authority engineer, Mr John Diskin, says that first notification he received of the slide was 7 p.m. that evening, when the peat and soil was about 250 metres from the public road, known as the "Black road", linking Derrybrien and Loughrea.
This was some three hours after the slide had started, but Hibernian Wind Energy says its immediate concern was the safety of all personnel in the area.
The local authority says its priority is the safety of that public road, which is currently closed.
However, it is also faced with handling several applications lodged by Hibernian Wind Energy, seeking extensions to two sets of planning permission awarded on the site to the original owners.
The Institute of Geologists of Ireland has called for professional geologists to be employed by county councils, and says that there should be an increase in staffing and funding for the Geological Survey of Ireland.
