Noel O’Rourke Plant Hire Ltd. provides exceptional tree cutting solutions and has been carrying out contract work for the ESB for 21 years. We dropped into their base in Ballinamore, County Leitrim and caught up with Owen McCarthy to find out more about the full range of plant hire and tree care / hedge cutting services offered.
As shining endorsements go, working for the ESB for more than two decades is about as good as it gets. The fact that Noel O’Rourke Plant Hire Ltd. has been cutting and clearing trees from around the state-owned electricity provider’s power lines for this length of time is all the confirmation we need regarding the quality, safety, reliability and professionalism of their work.
In this critical area of work, where Health & Safety are paramount, the Ballinamore-based company has achieved excellent results on a consistent basis and this is why they are renowned as one of premier tree care specialists in the region.
Owen McCarthy, who oversees all aspects of the significant ESB contract – from pricing to permits to cutting to paperwork and Health & Safety – reflects on the genesis of this popular plant hire / tree cutting operation, which enjoys strong ties with main contractors, builders and local authorities across the midlands, west and north-west:
“Noel has been in the plant hire business for 35 years and has been hedge cutting and tree cutting for the ESB for 25 years now. He started doing contract work for them 21 years ago.
“He had started out with track machines and diggers etc. and also did a little bit of agri work at the start as well. As soon as the ESB started with the timber cutting, with hedges etc. to clear the lines, he got involved in that. For the first four years, he would have hired out the equipment but the work has been done on a full contract basis since 1995. For the past 21 years, we have been supplying men and machinery fulfilling those contracts for the ESB.”
The work takes the Noel O’Rourke Plant Hire Ltd. team into counties Roscommon, Westmeath, Galway, Offly Kildare and Longford. “We go all over – into Roscommon, Athlone, Mullingar, Ballinasloe and Ferbane as well as Castlepollard, Kilcock, Edgeworthstown and Ballymahon,” Owen notes.
Regarding the actual contract itself, he adds: “It’s a three-year tender and you are allocated your work for each year, which is given out on a three-month basis. So you make sure you meet all of the targets and, obviously, safety is paramount and you have to implement the very highest Health & Safety procedures at all times. That’s something we’re very conscious of and geared towards.”
As well as generating employment for three men full-time, Noel O’Rourke Plant Hire Ltd. also calls in ESB-approved subcontractors to help out when the workload becomes particularly heavy. Although most storm damage tends to happen during the winter, Owen points out that the work isn’t necessarily seasonal:
“It’s steady work and we’re busy all year around,” he confirms. “The summer time is great when the land is drier and there’s more growth, but you are busy in the winter, too.
“Rain and high winds are the things that make our lives difficult. We do a lot of emergency storm work and respond to fallen trees and lines – you are on call 24/7 and you have to be prepared for whatever comes your way.
“On top of that, we look after general maintenance of existing lines and we clear timber for the building of new lines or refurbishments. Essentially, we cut whatever needs to be cut to clear the way for the power lines and to ensure that they remain clear of trees.”
ESB contracts account for the lion’s share of Noel O’Rourke Plant Hire Ltd.’s timber cutting work but they have the equipment, personnel and expertise at their disposal to take on other residential or commercial jobs should the opportunity arise. For example, working for Laing O’Rourke, they cleared all the timber from Dublin Airport during the construction of Terminal 2.
On the plant hire front, Noel O’Rourke has a large fleet of plant machinery – dump trucks, mini diggers, track machines etc. – and operators which are made available to the general construction sector, with regular customers including the aforementioned Laing O’Rourke and TH (Contractors) Ltd.
“We’re kept busy between everything,” Owen notes. “Development is fairly slow in Leitrim, but we are prepared to travel to wherever the work is once the job is big enough to justify it. If you got a few weeks out of it, there would be no issue with travelling. We’ve also built a lot of forestry roads in the past. Obviously, the ESB work is a big one for us as it is contract based and it keeps us ticking over.
“You have to maintain high standards across the board and there’s a lot of work going into Health & Safety, while we have all our men trained to the highest possible standards and keep them updated on all the latest legislation and safety requirements.
“The training is good and I believe the strict regulation is very necessary. This is an area that needs to be strictly regulated. With ESB work, there is no room for error and you have no choice only to enforce every regulation and guideline that is introduced.
“We carry out full risk assessment on site, go through all our checks and take every measure possible to ensure that everything is safe and secure before we start working. You are thinking all the time of the importance of safety and it is at the forefront of your mind from before you arrive on site until you finish the job. There can be no chances taken.
“Cutting timber has a range of hazards anyway but when you are working around power lines that brings a whole new range of hazards to the equation. You have to respect these.”
Noel O’Rourke Plant Hire Ltd. have never had to advertise. They have developed an unrivalled reputation for outstanding work far and wide through positive word of mouth based on previous work carried out and pride themselves on always carrying out this work safely, efficiently and professionally.
Noel O’Rourke Plant Hire Limited.,
Corraleehan Beg,
Ballinamore,
County Leitrim.
Tel: 071 9644522
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 4 No 7, September 2016
