A dedicated fund must be provided by Government to facilitate the felling of dangerous roadside trees, county councillors have claimed.

At a meeting of Galway County Council, local representatives said recent storms had highlighted the scale of the issue across the county as major arteries were blocked by falling trees.

And with the increasing prevalence of ash die-back leaving large trees rotting and vulnerable to falling in high winds, the responsibility for their removal should not be solely on the shoulders of landowners, they said.

Cllr Peter Keaveney (FG) said there was an urgent need for a grant scheme to assist landowners in the removal of these trees.

“These are huge trees and if they come down on a car, it will be fatal.

“Felling ten big trees could cost €20,000 to €20,000 and no landowner is in a position to pay that,” said Cllr Keaveney.

Cllr James Charity (Ind) said he had serious concerns about the prevalence of ash dieback in trees along the Headford Road.

“While a scheme to help landowners would certainly be helpful, we are talking about trees spanning from Ballindooley out to Corrandulla and it is actually hard to identify landowners there,” said Cllr Charity, explaining there was a significant amount of commonage along the route.

“Ash dieback is rife out there and I’m not sure a scheme is going to help – I think the Council needs to be proactive,” he continued, suggesting the local authority could instigate its own felling programme.

Cllr Michael Connolly (FF) said the Department of Transport should implement a scheme.

“It is time to look for a separate fund to clear the backlog of problematic trees because they are on every road,” he said.

Cllr Tomás Ó Curraoin (RSF) said there should be a scheme to “compensate people who, through no fault of their own, have these trees” infected with ash dieback.

Fine Gael Councillor David Collins said a previous proposal had been made to allow councillors to allocate Local Improvement Scheme (LIS) funds to the felling of dangerous trees but were awaiting clarity on whether or not that was possible.

Chief Executive Liam Conneally said they had written to the Department of Local Government on foot of this call by councillors but had not received a response.

“This issue is not going away so we will wait to see what the Department is going to say.

“It will have to open the purse, though, and while landowners have responsibility in law, many don’t have the capacity in financial terms to deal with the issue,” he said.

A proposal from Cllr David Collins, seconded by Cllr Peter Keaveney, that the County Council write to the Department to put in place a dedicated scheme for the felling of trees, was agreed without dissent.