ESB company admits to previous landslide

The ESB subsidiary, Hibernian Wind Power, has confirmed that a "small" landslide took place at Derrybrien in the Slieve Aughty mountains a fortnight before last month's major peat slide.

The earlier bog movement took place on October 2nd, and was far smaller in scale than the event on October 16th last, a spokesman for Hibernian Wind Power said. Describing it as a "failure of the peat", the spokesman said that it covered an area of about 20 metres by 80 metres. The size of the major movement three weeks ago was 1,500 times that.

The cause of this initial movement was still unclear, the spokesman said. He said that it was not connected to several small accidents involving machinery on the Derrybrien site, where a 60 megawatt wind farm is being constructed by the ESB subsidiary. Work on the wind farm has been suspended since the slide occurred.

The October 2nd incident was fully logged and reported to Galway County Council, the spokesman said. However, Mr Martin Collins of the Derrybrien Concerned Residents' Association said that it should have served as a warning, and should have been taking more seriously.

The ESB subsidiary has also denied that blasting work which it was undertaking as part of the €60 million project may have contributed to the collapse.No blasting had taken place for two weeks before October 16th, the spokesman added.

The company has a team of 40 people working on a 24-hour rota since last Thursday, when heavy rain caused further movement of peat down the mountain. A series of dams are being built, the first of which has proved effective in helping to stabilise the area, the spokesman said.