Council commits to replace dead trees on Quirke Road

All 70 trees planted as part of the Seamus Quirke Road expansion scheme – estimated to be worth in the region of €20,000 – are to replaced in the autumn.

However, it is the third time the local authority has said the trees will be replaced.

The City Council said this week that work will be carried out in September or October by the original contractors to replace the trees, many of died shortly after they were planted in 2011 and 2012.

It’s understood the Council will not be ‘footing the bill’ for the new trees, and the costs will be covered by Coffey Construction.

More than half of the trees – which were planted semi-mature and were worth several hundred euro each – are dead, and the others are dying.

An initial assurance was given to this newspaper in August 2013 that work on replacing the trees would begin within “two weeks”.

No work was carried out and in July 2014, an assurance was given that the work would be carried out last autumn.

A spokesperson for the Council said the authority has recently been in contact with the contractors and the stock of trees will be replenished, with new planting taking place in September or October.

The spokesperson was unable to say why the work had not already taken place.

Local area councillor Padraig Conneely – an outspoken critic of the €16.5 million Seamus Quirke Road scheme and its massive cost over-runs – said a report needs to come before the Council on why so many trees failed.

“This probably cost in the region of €20,000 and you’d have to wonder why so many of the trees died so quickly,” he said.