*Photograph: Mark Carmody
ELEVEN power cuts over the past fourteen months in Sixmilebridge were not caused by faulty transformers or storm damage but rather woodpeckers attacking electricity poles.
Up to forty households are in the townland of Clogga, located to the east of Sixmilebridge which has been subject to the woodpecker caused outages.
Eight interruptions were recorded in 2025, including two multi‑day losses of supply in January and November. Three more outages followed in January 2026.
Clare TD, Joe Cooney (FG) had asked ESB Networks to explain the repeated outages which he said have caused significant inconvenience for householders in Clogga.
In its response, ESB Networks said its staff were “very conscious of the continuity issues” experienced locally and confirmed that a major upgrade of the network is now under way. The company said the unusual problem stemmed from woodpeckers boring into wooden poles, which had weakened them to the point that they had to be replaced.
“At issue here is woodpeckers. They have been damaging our poles on the network,” the company said in its response to Deputy Cooney. “Our colleagues are replacing these wooden poles with a composite pole in order to prevent woodpecker damage going forward.”
ESB Networks said the work would require further planned outages, which would be staggered to “minimise the disruption to the customer”. It added that customers would receive advance notice of any interruptions. “We apologise to customers for the inconvenience here, and thank them for their forbearance,” the company said. It added that the upgrade would lead to “improved resilience and continuity in the local network into the future”.
Speaking on Wednesday morning, Deputy Cooney said the woodpeckers were eating into poles which were “undermining the strength of the poles” and that they were also flying into cables and loosening the transformers at the top of the electricity poles.
He said steel poles have been used in England to prevent woodpeckers from eating into the poles. The cost for ESB in changing damaged electricity poles is €5,000 per pole, Deputy Cooney outlined.
“To be honest I couldn’t believe it myself when I heard the woodpeckers were causing the issue. When I said it to the residents, they asked me if it was a joke but having explored it since it isn’t a joke, it is a reality, ESB are doing fantastic work and they have enough work on their hands without having to change electricity poles,” the O’Callaghans Mills native added.
Woodpeckers are relatively new to Ireland. The Great Spotted Woodpeckers first recorded breeding in broadleaf forests in Wicklow in 2005. Since then, they have greatly expanded its range to almost all other parts of the country, Mayo is believed to be the only part of Ireland were woodpeckers have yet to migrate to. The spread of the woodpecker is attributed to several factors, including the provision of supplementary bird feed in gardens and the availability of decaying wood to both feed and nest in.
