A Co Donegal landowner has avoided the prospect of being jailed for contempt after he allowed the ESB onto his lands to carry out urgent repairs to power lines.
The High Court heard on Tuesday that Patrick Gallagher had allowed the ESB access to his property and that the works had been carried out.
Late last month the ESB secured a High Court injunction requiring Mr
Gallagher to allow its workers on his lands at Galdonagh Glebe, Manorcunningham, Co Donegal.
The injunction restrained Mr Gallagher, a lorry driver, from obstructing or preventing the ESB from entering his lands to do the repair work.
The ESB sought the order because it needed to carry out urgently replace a rotten wooden transformer pole on its existing Cullion/Newtown 10kv distribution line.
It claims that the pole was at risk of collapse and posed a serious risk to members of the public.
If the rotten pole should break, and lines fell to the ground, the ESB also claimed that the continuity of electricity supply to over 1,000 customers would be at risk.
The ESB sued Mr Gallagher after he refused on several occasions to facilitate access onto his lands, and had allegedly frustrated and threatened the ESB’s staff.
The ESB claimed it had been in contact with Mr Gallagher since late March in an attempt to secure access.
However due to Mr Gallagher’s continued refusal it was unable to carry out the works and has had to schedule power outages to customers in the vicinity.
The ESB claimed that it has a statutory right, under the 1927 ESB Act to access lands to carry out safety works which it does not require it to pay any compensation to the land owner.
Despite securing the injunction in late July, the ESB claimed that Mr Gallagher had continued to deny the it access onto his lands over the August Bank Holiday weekend so it could do the repairs.
Arising out of that the ESB sought to have Mr Gallagher brought before the court to answer his alleged contempt.
Last week it secured permission from the court to serve short notice of contempt proceedings against Mr Gallagher.
When the matter returned before Ms Justice Nuala Butler on Tuesday the court was told by Stephen Dodd SC for the ESB that Mr Gallagher had allowed the ESB on the lands and the works had been carried out.
Counsel said that all that was left was for the court the make an order requiring Mr Gallagher to pay the ESB’s legal costs.
The judge agreed to make a costs order against Mr Gallagher, and struck out the proceedings.
Mr Gallagher was not present, nor was legally represented, when the matter came before the court.
The court previously heard that in 2014 the ESB and EirGrid had to bring High Court proceedings against Mr Gallagher in order to secure access to his lands at Listack, Do Donegal to carry out works on other powerlines.
In that action the ESB said Mr Gallagher ultimately gave an undertaking to the court to allow the works be done.
