Celebrating a quarter of a century in business, Sean O’Malley Plant Hire Ltd is a family-run concern specialising in plant hire, land drainage works, forestry development, road-making and turf cutting.
Founder and managing director Sean O’Malley is joined in the business by his wife Ita and daughters Sarah and Niamh. The company, which currently has a staff of 24 on its books, has a wealth of experience in ground works and has been involved in many construction, forestry and farm-related projects in the West of Ireland down the years.
Sean O’Malley Plant Hire operates from Bofeenaun, Ballina, which is actually a lot closer to Castlebar than Ballina. “We’re 18 miles from Ballina and eight from Castlebar, so our postal address is a bit misleading!” Ita informs us.
“Sean comes from a farming background and has always received huge support from the farming community. I don’t know if we would have survived the recession if it wasn’t for the farmers and the work they put our way. We were able to fall back on that after the building boom collapsed.
“Thankfully, the construction sector appears to be recovering and business is picking up again,” she adds.
All of Sean O’Malley’s machines are of the highest calibre and are operated by highly skilled and capable drivers and personnel. He runs a fleet of 14 excavators and three tractors as well as low-loaders, dumpers, rock breakers, turf hoppers and various other plant and equipment. The excavators consist of Hitachi, New Holland and Kobelco, while the tractors are John Deere and Valmet. Sean is a long-standing customer of McSharry Bros Plant Sales and Gaynor Plant Sales, both of which are located in Co. Roscommon.
No job is too big or too small for Sean O’Malley Plant Hire, which has an enviable reputation throughout the West. Site development, site clearance, demolition, roadways, foundations, pipe-laying, sewerage, footpaths, kerbing, field drainage, forestry development, turf cutting, Group Water Schemes and landscaping are all part of the service. The company undertakes all agri plant hire work, including land drainage and land reclamation.
Any farmer who has a problem with land drainage or land drains should not hesitate to give the O’Malley’s a call.
Sean O’Malley Plant Hire boasts an impressive client-base which includes Mayo County Council, Coillte, FEL Forestry Service, Ward & Burke Construction Ltd, Green Belt Forestry and Woodland Forestry. Among the local projects Sean O’Malley Plant Hire is currently involved in are the Tourmakeady Water Treatment Plant Upgrade and the Waste Water Treatment Works in Kilmaine. During the winter months, the company transports road salt for Mayo County Council.
The company also worked on the Great Western Greenway walking and cycling path which traverses the Atlantic coast between Westport and Achill Island, and takes in the villages of Newport and Mulranny. It passes by some of the West of Ireland’s most dramatic mountains and offers magnificent views of Clew Bay and its many islands.
O’Malley Plant Hire enjoys an excellent working relationship with Ward & Burke Construction Ltd, as it does with all of its customers. The Galway-headquartered civil engineering company has successfully completed a number of water works projects in Ireland and the UK. The majority of its workload is in sanitary services, providing pipelines, treatment plants, reservoirs and water storage to local authorities and the Department of the Environment.
FEL, Green Belt and Woodland are well-established names in the Irish forestry sector. FEL (Forest Enterprises Ltd) has over 20 years’ forest management experience and currently manages over 14,000 hectares of commercial forests in Ireland and Scotland. The company specialises in afforestation, planting, windfarm services and forest valuations.
Green Belt is another leading private forestry company which manages over 300,000 acres of private forestry throughout Ireland and plants in excess of 8,000 acres of new forests each year. Among its management portfolio are plantations owned by thousands of Irish farmers and other individuals.
Woodland is Ireland’s oldest private forestry business. It provides forestry planning, contracting and hands-on woodland management services to timber growers, and also has considerable experience of the taxation of woodland income and capital.
Sean O’Malley Plant Hire is also known far and wide for its turf cutting service. Every summer, Sean harvests turf which is used to heat countless homes in Co. Mayo and beyond.
The success of this family enterprise is based on hard work, reliability, safety awareness and a professional, unrivalled and cost-effective service. Here’s to the next 25 years of Sean O’Malley Plant Hire Ltd!
Sean O’Malley Plant Hire Ltd
Cuilmullagh,
Bofeenaun,
Ballina,
Co. Mayo.
Telephone: 096 51091
Mobile: 086-2586460
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 3 No 2, March 2015
