James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I am grateful for the opportunity, as Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, to make this statement to the Dáil following one of the most dangerous and destructive wind storms experienced in living memory. First, I acknowledge the extreme hardship experienced by many people across the country who had to deal with power and water outages for extended periods. Unfortunately, there are still households with no power today, although I know ESB Networks is working tirelessly until every customer's supply is restored. I want to place on record my sincere appreciation to all of those who have been involved in the response and recovery efforts for more than 12 days now. This has not only been a whole-of-government response but a whole-of-society response. We have seen local authority personnel clearing and making safe our roads, collaboratively working with the ESB, Uisce Éireann and other providers to access key infrastructure and effect repairs and reconnection, and this work continues.

My Department is designated as the lead Government Department in the case of severe weather events and this means it is responsible for the co-ordination of the whole-of-government response related to weather emergencies. The crisis management team of the national directorate for fire and emergency management, NDFEM, had identified the potential severe weather in advance of the naming of Storm Éowyn and began liaising with Met Éireann on Monday, 20 January, to track its progress and prepare for the onset. A crucial part of this early preparation was the advance contact with the ESB, EirGrid and Uisce Éireann from 22 January, giving these utilities the opportunity to stand up crisis management teams, put response plans in place and have personnel ready to deploy and effect repairs as soon as it was safe to do so.

In advance of Storm Éowyn, the national emergency co-ordination group, NECG, the established Government platform for responding to national-level emergencies under the strategic emergency management framework, was activated. The NDFEM also activated two NECG subgroups in advance of Storm Éowyn, namely, the NECG subgroup on power infrastructure and the NECG subgroup on transport and education. Two full NECG meetings were convened in advance of Storm Éowyn on Wednesday and Thursday, 22 and 23 January. The initial objective for the group was to ensure the safety of all communities and put in place appropriate response measures. Following the second NECG meeting at the national emergency co-ordination centre, Agriculture House, on Thursday, 23 January, a press briefing was held to further emphasise the key public safety messaging. A third NECG meeting took place at 9 a.m. on Friday, 24 January, while Storm Éowyn was crossing the country, to begin the assessment of the disruption and damage caused and to co-ordinate and prioritise the allocation of resources necessary from across Government to restore power, water, telecommunications and other services to homes, farms and businesses. The emphasis was on supporting ESB Networks and ensuring local authorities and Transport Infrastructure Ireland could commence road-clearing operations rapidly. It was noted that people across all communities heard the communications from the NECG and acted on the public safety message of sheltering in place, with reports of little traffic across the road network.

Storm Éowyn caused significant structural damage across the country. At its peak, ESB Networks reported that customer outages reached 768,000, which is unprecedented. ESB Networks and EirGrid immediately began using remote links to bring back trip circuits that were not damaged, and standby crews were deployed to begin damage assessment and effect repairs as soon as it was safe to do so. Uisce Éireann reported that 200,000 premises were without water and it was carefully watching other supplies that could be under threat if power outages were prolonged. Crews from Uisce Éireann have been on the ground since it has been safe to do so, restoring supply and ensuring that where supply was threatened, generators were in place to provide resilience, as well as putting in place safeguarding measures with regard to wastewater treatment, working with group water scheme users to ensure safe reconnection and providing generators, where possible, to secure threatened supplies. Local authority services were stood up, with outdoor crews deployed to undertake road clearing operations as soon as it was safe to do so. Arrangements were put in place on Friday evening to make personnel and equipment from the Defence Forces, Coillte, the Civil Defence and the National Parks and Wildlife Service available to ESB Networks to help with power restoration.

Ireland has been actively working with colleagues in the EU civil protection mechanism and requested an initial damage assessment through the Copernicus mapping satellite. When severe emergencies occur, national authorities are required by the EU to first develop an overview of the situation and make a request based on identified needs. Needs assessments are essential to ensure appropriate and detailed requests can be made for limited shared resources and ensure that the necessary logistics and transport can be actioned effectively. I have to make clear that it is not possible to act in a “just in case” situation. Any suggestion that generators or other supports could have been put in place before the storm hit is incorrect. It is not an EU competence so it is not possible to demand that such a thing be done.

The NECG, working with the sectors affected by Storm Éowyn, prioritised impact assessment at the early stage of the recovery phase, once it was safe to deploy front-line staff. The NECG subgroup on infrastructure identified the need for large-capacity generator support, which was relayed through the common emergency communications and information system on the afternoon of Saturday, 25 January. Again, this is not an EU competence. All the EU and Commissioner Lahbib can do is take our request and pass it on to other EU countries. There is no mechanism for the EU to demand support from other EU countries for any country. Eighteen generators of varying sizes were offered to Ireland by Denmark and Luxembourg and also from a rescEU stockpile based in Poland. These generators have been made available to Uisce Éireann and telecoms providers to bolster the resilience of their infrastructure.

The NECG and relevant subgroups have continued to meet daily, with Government press releases containing important public information released following each meeting. The key priorities of the NECG remain the restoration of power, water, telecommunications and other services to homes, farms and businesses, and the provision of humanitarian assistance to those worst affected by Storm Éowyn. For this reason, two additional NECG subgroups were established to co-ordinate recovery efforts, one covering communications infrastructure and one covering humanitarian assistance. With regard to power restoration, we are now in the “long tail” phase and dealing with the most difficult and resource-heavy reconnections, with a complete infrastructure rebuild necessary in some locations where the local transmission network has been completely destroyed. Every effort continues to be made.

Uisce Éireann reported a peak of 200,000 without water. There are currently fewer than 300 premises remaining without water supply. The focus of the NECG will remain on the full restoration of power, water and telecommunications infrastructure until all services have resumed normal operations. There is an understandable frustration at the pace of full service restoration. I reassure all of those affected that the local authority-led co-ordination groups will continue to ensure practical supports are available to communities experiencing a prolonged loss of services through the established community hubs. There are currently 326 hubs in operation.

The exceptional scale of the damage caused by Storm Éowyn, which led to widespread destruction across all essential services, bringing extreme hardship to households throughout the country, is a warning of how damaging severe weather events are becoming, with such events likely to increase in frequency and in intensity. There is now a strong focus on resilience and how we might have approached this event differently. These conversations are not for today while crews remain out on the ground repairing infrastructure. Once the response to this event has concluded, however, a systematic review of the co-ordinated responses to Storm Éowyn will be conducted and submitted to the Government task force on emergency planning.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister, Deputy Browne, for opening the discussion on the recent unprecedented storm. The Minister has focused on the response to the storm from a whole-of-government perspective and I will focus my remarks on the impact this storm had on the electricity network.

Before I turn to that impact, I acknowledge that, as of this morning, 18,000 customers still remain without power. The priority for this Government has been and remains to ensure the safety and well-being of our citizens by assisting in the restoration of power to all as quickly and as safely as possible. We also need to continue to provide support to vulnerable individuals who are without power. I know that colleagues in ESB Networks are working with An Garda Síochána, the HSE, other Departments, such as the Department of Social Protection, local authorities and agencies to ensure every vulnerable customer gets assistance.

As the Minister, Deputy Browne, said, Ireland experienced an unprecedented storm, one that none of us has seen in our lifetime, that led to damaging, dangerous and destructive wind gusts, causing widespread power outages on our distribution system. Reports from ESB Networks indicate that the worst affected counties were Galway, Roscommon, Mayo, Longford, Cavan, Leitrim and Sligo. In parts, the electricity grid has been destroyed, requiring crews to replace more than 3,000 poles and hang 900 km of new conductor cable. At the peak, 768,000 customers were without electricity supply. As mentioned, thanks to the efforts of ESB Networks crews since the storm occurred, this number was down to 18,000 this morning. That means power has been restored for a total of 750,000 customers. I know, however, and all of us know, that some customers are still without power for nearly two weeks, and in some areas, due to the scale of the damage to the electricity grid, the work has been incredibly intricate and difficult. I assure the House and our citizens without power that every effort is being made to restore electricity to these remaining customers as soon as possible.

Approximately 3,000 ESB Networks crew members, contractors and the crews who came to assist us from Britain, France, Finland, Germany, Austria, Norway and the Netherlands have worked non-stop since 24 January to restore power to customers as quickly and as safely as possible. I have, and will continue to engage directly with ESB Networks and the ESB to ensure they have the full support of the State to respond to the storm. ESB Networks has also been instrumental through the work of the National Emergency Co-ordination Group subgroup on infrastructure in restoring critical services and assisting in the restoration of services such as telecommunications and water impacted by the widespread outages. Furthermore, ESB Networks is engaging with An Garda Síochána, the HSE, the Defence Forces and the subgroup on humanitarian support to ensure vulnerable customers are prioritised and communicated with. All sectors need to understand who their vulnerable customers are and for the relevant agencies and Departments to work together to ensure there is a co-ordinated approach to dealing with this cohort.

Of course, learnings will emerge during the course of the review of the storm response by colleagues in the Minister, Deputy Browne's Department, my own Department and across government. I will fully support this review process. While there will be areas for the whole of Government and relevant agencies to consider, there are also specific learnings for the electricity system that have emerged already. On Friday, 31 January, I met again with representatives from the ESB, ESB Networks and the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities, CRU, to discuss increasing the resilience of the system once the immediate impact of the storm has passed. I assure the House that I have received assurances from ESB Networks that it is taking all actions necessary to restore power to customers. Both the CRU and ESB Networks confirmed that there are no financial barriers or budget constraints impacting on the Storm Éowyn response, as the regulatory regime makes full provision for force majeure events. A number of actions emerged from these discussions, and I outlined these earlier today in a memo to Government which was considered this morning.

First, an enhanced winter 2025 grid resilience plan is to be developed within one month. It is to be implemented by ESB Networks between March and October of this year. This is increasingly important in the wake of a trend that we are now seeing of increasing strength of storms crossing Ireland, which points to the need for an increased focus on ensuring the resilience of the electricity network to more powerful storms. ESB Networks has already identified some initial actions in this regard. For the information of the House, I will summarise them briefly. It is looking at substantially increasing the materials or stockholding of spare parts for the electricity network. Spare parts and materials are already held, but we are reviewing that inventory to see what additional stock would need to be held in reserve. It includes forestry corridors, as the Taoiseach has mentioned earlier today, including action this year to address overhead line corridors in advance of the winter in 2025 to 2026. It is also looking at the identification and acceleration of specific, near-term projects that would improve resilience this year, and to progress projects that are already identified in this area under Price Review 6, PR6. That is effectively bringing forward any projects that we can, which are in the 2026-2030 ESB investment programme, to see which one of those can be brought forward into this year, and a review of the potential support available from other electricity network companies across Europe. Our crews have assisted our European colleagues and colleagues in Britain following storms there, and we are grateful for the support we receive, but we need to review that further.

Second, I am requesting a full review by ESB Networks and CRU by the end of quarter 1 of the planned grid enhancement and priorities developed by ESB Networks under Price Review 6, which I just mentioned. This runs from 2026 to 2030 and is an investment of €13.4 billion in capital across that period. That builds on a significant investment of €5.5 billion in the grid network between 2021 and 2025. The ESB, as I mentioned, is also working on a programme to progress projects and accelerate timelines where possible. The PR6 business plan also includes investment in network resilience and climate adaptation. This will now need to be reviewed in the aftermath of the storm, and I have requested that this be done - and it will be done - to identify those specific projects and investments that are needed to future-proof Ireland's energy grid and to adapt to the challenges of climate change. It is essential that companies and regulators responsible for protecting our citizens are appropriately resourced to deliver. Both ESB Networks and CRU have plans to significantly increase their workforces over the coming year, and I will work closely with both the Minister, Deputy Chambers, and the Minister, Deputy Browne, in this regard.

I acknowledge the efforts of the 3,000 workers across ESB Networks, contractors from the countries I have mentioned, our colleagues in Europe and Britain, and extend my thanks and appreciation to them for the work that they are doing and have done to restore power to the country. I assure colleagues regarding the investment for the remainder of this year that we will look at expediting projects where we can with a particular focus on vegetation and forestry corridors.

Our main focus over the course of the remainder of this week and into early next week, however, is restoring power to those who still do not have electricity. That remains our main focus in this regard.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I have been across County Mayo and across the country in recent weeks and I have seen at first hand, as many colleagues have, the very devastating real effects of Storm Éowyn on communities and families throughout the country. I assure people in every community, in rural and in urban areas, that we are working hard and doing all we can to get their power, water and communications back up and running. While Storm Éowyn was unprecedented, it is now the precedent and we have to prepare accordingly based on this precedent.

On the day I was appointed as Minister for Social Protection, my first action as Minister was to activate the humanitarian assistance scheme on Thursday, 23 January. This was done in advance of Storm Éowyn's arrival to ensure there was certainty for people about the supports which would be available. Up to yesterday evening, the community welfare service of the Department of Social Protection has issued 3,818 payments, totalling €727,792, to people left without power and water following the storm. My Department’s community welfare officers have been visiting people affected by the storm and we continue to work closely with local co-ordination groups around the country. The community welfare service provided a full phone and email service, including over the bank holiday weekend, dealing with 523 calls and 242 emails on Saturday and Sunday. We have relocated community welfare officers from across the country into the affected areas. I thank all the staff in the Department of Social Protection who have been working incredibly hard on the humanitarian assistance scheme.

The humanitarian assistance scheme is in a number of stages. Stage 1 is available to people who are currently impacted by the storm, and our focus is on those who continue to be without power or water and who will need immediate support while without that power or, indeed, water. Stage 1 funding issued to date has been to cover the ongoing cost of food, given that many people remain unable to either refrigerate or cook food without power. In addition, people have been supported with the cost of alternative accommodation. The level of support provided reflects reasonable rates based on local cost availability. The scheme has also supported the purchase of necessary items such as gas heaters and torches. I thank the Deputies from many areas who have been in touch with me regarding cases and pointing out clogs in the system. I thank them for bringing them to my attention and we will continue to try to work through to ensure we get to those who are immediately impacted and that we prioritise them at this stage.

Stages 2 and 3 will kick in once we have all power connected. Stage 2 generally involves the replacement of white goods, basic furniture items and other essential household items after a severe weather event. Stage 3 is to identify the longer term financial support required to make a person’s accommodation habitable again in the aftermath of a severe weather event, which could include funding for work such as plastering, dry-lining, relaying of floors, rewiring and painting. Stages 2 and 3 humanitarian supports are subject to income limits of €50,000 for a single person; €90,000 for a couple, and €15,000 per dependent child. I emphasise once again that stage 1 is not subject to income limits. It should be noted that the scheme does not pay for damage that is covered by insurance policies nor does it cover commercial, agricultural, or business losses.

A key focus for me as Minister for Rural and Community Development over the last period has been to work with colleagues in the NECG and local authorities to identify locations for emergency response hubs and get them set up in order that people could access water, hot food, shower, charging facilities, and clothes washing facilities. At the peak of the storm and response, more than 380 hubs were in operation last week, and that is now roughly 330.

As part of the recovery effort, we were also working hard to source generators, particularly for our island and rural communities, to ensure people stayed safe during the recovery phase. The provision of generators to support communities during extreme weather events is an issue I feel strongly about. There are lessons to be learned in terms of the shortage of generators, which we have seen over the past week, and I have asked the Department of Community and Rural Development to engage with local authorities on this crucial community resilience issue and to provide me with a number of proposals.

A key concern was the effective collapse of many communication networks. Mobile phone, broadband connectivity and emergency services are a key resource for every community, especially rural communities. We need to ensure a more resilient network, and this is something I and the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, plan to focus on over the coming weeks by working with mobile phone and broadband operators and with the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer on the functioning of the disaster relief network, TETRA Ireland. This network facilitates the operation of emergency services and related communications, and it is clear we need to ensure a more resilient system for vulnerable communities.

I met with communities across my own constituency of Mayo but also in Connemara and on Inishmore to offer support and to thank those who responded to the needs of their neighbours and of their community, whether by opening community centres, helping to repair damage or even just checking in on others. I join colleagues in thanking all of the workers in ESB, their international colleagues, in Uisce Éireann, in our local authorities and in our communication companies for their work.

Chas mé go díreach le pobail i Maigh Eo, i gConamara agus ar Inis Mór an tseachtain seo caite chun tionchar na stoirme a fheiceáil agus chun buíochas a ghabháil le heagraíochtaí pobail a raibh baint acu leis an obair théarnaimh i ndiaidh na stoirme. Is léir go bhfuil obair ollmhór théarnaimh déanta ag go leor daoine, lena n-áirítear na háisíneachtaí Stáit agus, ar ndóigh, na pobail iad féin. Mothaíonn daoine atá ag maireachtáil sna ceantair thuaithe seo leochaileach i ndiaidh ócáidí aimsire mar seo. Is gá é sin a aithint. Is gá tacú le fostaíocht agus seirbhísí a choinneáil sna ceantair Gaeltachta seo agus a chinntiú go mbeidh daoine in ann a ngnó a dhéanamh in ainneoin na drochaimsire. Is gá infreastruchtúr tuaithe níos láidre sna ceantair seo a fhorbairt sa tréimhse amach romhainn, agus beidh mise ag cur béime air sin le linn mo théarma mar Aire na Gaeltachta.

As Minister for Rural and Community Development, I was proud to visit community spaces supported by my Department under schemes such as the community centre investment fund, CLÁR, the local enhancement programme and LEADER, and through the RSS, SICAP, and community employment workers, who are assisting their neighbours and colleagues throughout the country. Many of the emergency response hubs have received capital support but also public support. We will continue to invest in that scheme but also to look at the lessons from the past number of weeks to make them more resilient.

Government and its various agencies have been working tirelessly to support those affected by the storm and we continue to do so. Teams are working around the clock to restore power and water. I assure the House of both my Departments' commitment to supporting those who continue to be impacted by the storm. The humanitarian assistance scheme remains open and I remain available to discuss issues on that with Deputies and Senators. I reiterate my thanks to all involved in the response in emergency services, ESB, Uisce Éireann, the staff in the Department of Social Protection, local authority staff and community staff and volunteers throughout the country who have stepped up. We have to learn from this and make improvements to recovery plans in the future to reflect the new precedent that was Storm Éowyn to ensure those lessons have been learned, that the changes will be implemented and that we are able to respond to something we have not had before but which will probably become a more regular event.

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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As Minister with responsibility for enterprise, tourism and employment, I am acutely aware that the period since Storm Éowyn hit on Friday 24 January has been a hugely disruptive and worrying time for householders but also for business owners, who have been extremely concerned about the impacts on their businesses, their livelihoods, their customers, their staff and their communities. I recognise that many businesses will have had a significant storm impacts and disruption to their operations over the past 12 days. I have spoken to many business owners directly who have suffered significant damage. Thankfully, for most businesses, the worst impacts have now passed and they have returned to business. I am acutely aware, however, that for a subset of businesses, issues such as access to power and to communications continue to have a disruptive impact on their operations and their livelihoods.

I put on record my appreciation for all of the first responders working in very difficult circumstances to support all of our communities. Specific ongoing challenges that local enterprise offices in the most impacted counties have highlighted to me since the start of the storm have included structural damage to business premises, including a number of buildings which have had their roofs completely torn off or have been damaged by fallen trees. Some businesses have lost significant stock either through premises damage or through spoilage, and sometimes this has arisen because of a loss of electrical power in the business premises or because the businesses in question were unable to deliver their produce to customers in time. There has also been widespread disruption to trading, with many businesses unable to open or facing significant challenges due to power, water or communications impacts arising from Storm Éowyn.

It is clear that, associated with the foregoing impacts, there will be loss of earnings or, indeed, the need to incur unexpected expenditures to respond to the impact of the storm, including the cost of repairs or temporary use of electrical generators. Finally, we need to be cognisant that our farms are businesses too and Storm Éowyn has given rise to significant animal welfare challenges as well as unprecedented damage within the agriculture and horticulture sector to farm buildings, fencing, polytunnels and trees which will take considerable work to repair. Members will no doubt be aware that on previous occasions my Department has worked with local authorities and the Irish Red Cross to put in place a humanitarian flood relief scheme where small businesses had flood damage which was not covered by insurance. To recap, these schemes have generally been quite narrow in their scope, with eligibility limited to small businesses of fewer than 20 employees, with the scheme only being applicable for flood damage where the business had been unable to secure commercial flood insurance. Voluntary bodies and sports clubs have also been included and will be able to access the scheme.

I have engaged directly with the insurance sector, which is critical, and it is my understanding that in the vast majority of cases the primary impacts arising for businesses should, in the normal course, be covered by the insurance that a business will have taken out to cover the risks associated with a major storm. This should be the first and primary recourse for businesses that have incurred financial losses as a result of Storm Éowyn, very significant losses in some cases. I welcome that the insurance industry has proactively sought through its media engagement over recent days to reassure both householders and businesses that it views impacts from Storm Éowyn as within the scope of insurance, which are therefore fully covered for both householders and businesses.

It is very relevant to highlight at this juncture that the programme for Government includes a specific commitment to introduce an extreme weather assistance scheme. This initiative predates Storm Éowyn and is a strategic policy action for delivery within the timeframe of the current Government. However, it is the case that the unprecedented impacts of Storm Éowyn mean that this initiative needs to be a high priority for the Departments involved. In this regard, my officials have been engaging with their counterparts to progress this as a matter of urgency. I believe that the broad aim should be to strengthen the existing humanitarian assistance schemes already in place, including those operated by the Department of Social Protection for households, the specific flooding supports for small businesses, sports clubs and voluntary organisations administered through my Department, and the parallel schemes operated by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Consideration must be given to how small businesses can be supported in advance of major storms to mitigate damage caused. In this regard, I look forward to being in a position to share with my Government colleagues some more detail on the extreme weather assistance scheme in the future.

My Department recognises that businesses may have had recent challenges in addressing filing and compliance obligations. Given the impact of Storm Éowyn, it is entirely appropriate to adopt a flexible, responsive and pragmatic approach to ensure that businesses and companies are not adversely affected by or penalised for the disruption to their normal filing and compliance activities arising from Storm Éowyn. While all public bodies are naturally taking a flexible and sensitive approach, it is useful to highlight two specific agencies I have engaged with that may be of particular relevance to the business sector.

The Revenue Commissioners have been fully aware that the exceptional weather events have caused difficulties for many and understand that this disruption can impact timely tax compliance. Revenue will work with those taxpayers and businesses that have been adversely impacted by Storm Éowyn to ensure that good compliance records can remain on track despite the disruption caused.

The Companies Registration Office has also been aware that certain areas of the country continue to be significantly impacted by power and communications outages caused by Storm Éowyn. As a result, some companies have encountered difficulties when filing their annual returns with the Companies Registration Office. If the person presenting company filings is in an area that has been affected by the power or communications outages caused by Storm Éowyn, they are advised to contact the Companies Registration Office, and officials there will assist the impacted businesses.

Finally, it is also important to recognise that businesses and local businesspeople have a very strong connection and commitment to their local communities, and businesses have responded with enormous generosity, community spirit and agility to the recent emergencies. As Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, I pay particular tribute to the massive contribution to the local emergency hubs and the broader national response which have been made by the business community. You only have to look at the maps published by the Government highlighting the enormous number of locations where emergency hubs have been stood up to see the contribution from businesses in supporting their local communities. In particular, there has been a huge demand for e-working centres, which have facilitated many local people to continue to have the access to the connectivity required to do their jobs. At a national level, too, I want to recognise the support from the business community. A manifestation of this practical support has included a generous and rapid response from private companies, in reaction to a specific appeal from the national emergency coordination group, in making their stocks of electrical generators available to ESB Networks, Uisce Éireann and the telecoms sector. The timely provision of this extra generation capacity has been pivotal in adding resilience to local infrastructure, with some capacity being utilised this week, enabling a number of schools in rural areas to reopen.

In that regard, and while recognising that we are still within the emergency response phase and restoration works are ongoing, it will be appropriate over the coming weeks that the Government work with business and community stakeholders to consider the additional steps we collectively need to take to build further resilience as regards our power, water and communications infrastructure, as well as a focus on further strengthening of the emergency response led by the Government. I will be taking a particular interest in supporting this work, actively working with the business sector to identify opportunities for further resilience-building in our critical infrastructure. Over recent days, a number of businesses have highlighted to me that they see a huge role for the Government in the possible provision of financial support for emergency generators. While I am not in a position to share specific details, I will be exploring appropriate responses that the Government will take and that can assist to build additional resilience and capacity in the business sector over the period ahead.

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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The Ministers are about 12 days too late. We are having statements on the Government response to a storm that happened 12 days ago, and the Ministers return here as the vast majority of homes are reconnected and, for many, the outages are over. Shame on this Government for ignoring the call I made two days after the storm that the Government should have come here to answer the questions and to put the supports in place much more quickly than they were put in place. The Taoiseach's response was to come down to County Roscommon to get his photograph taken and then to tell us on this side of the House that we were playing politics. I have been in this House since 2020 and I have never played politics on any issue, ever. I called for the Dáil to return because it was the right thing to do, and it was on the back of the anger, the anguish and the pain that was felt by the people of Roscommon and Galway who I am here to represent. This Government has let those people down. It took eight days for the Government to announce that costs for accommodation would be covered. Even though it took eight days, the Government still managed to get it wrong. One of the first questions I was asked was, "I have no money to pay upfront for three or four nights' accommodation. What am I supposed to do?" I have had to say: "I will email the Minister and I might get a reply tomorrow or next week and I will let you know, and you just wait." It is not good enough and not acceptable.

There are two existing humanitarian assistance scheme forms. This scheme has been in place for quite some time; it is not something the Government put together in a hurry. It would not want to be, given the time it has taken to get us to this point. There have been mixed messages repeatedly in terms of these support payments and what they are actually for. I have constituents who filled in the form. One handed it in to a social welfare office on behalf of her elderly parents. She was told her elderly parents needed to come in and present themselves. Another rang the Department phone line over the weekend and was told the HAS1 form was means tested, even though it is not. The means test has been suspended. Another was told she could not apply because her power was back - again, not correct. That is before we get to the forms at all. I welcome the clarification and confirmation from the Minister, Dara Calleary, today. Those people who got cheques by post for €150 have panicked because that does not even come close to covering their costs. It is so important that we communicate to people, that they get a letter to explain to them: "This is for your immediate need - food etc. More will follow where you have more costs." It is so important that we communicate that because there has been an awful lot of confusion. I have dealt with people who have spent so much money over the last six, seven, eight, nine, ten, 11 days, they are worried about how they are going to afford to pay their mortgage this month. That is the level of cost this has caused for so many households.

There has also been confusion in terms of farmers and the HAS2 form and what is covered under it. I rang the Department phone line on Sunday for somebody. I was told that sheds - turf sheds etc. - are covered but that anything for agricultural use is not.

We need clarification. Farmers need clarification on that.

I commend the ESB staff on the ground, the Uisce Éireann staff on the ground and the local authorities. I thank each and every one of them for the work they continue to do, and sometimes in very difficult conditions. I also commend all of the communities who stepped up, who set up the hubs and who have done so much in recent days, especially those across Roscommon and Galway. I have never been prouder to represent them here in this House. Yesterday, I listened to the CEO of the ESB on the radio. He was asked about compensation and supports for his customers and his response was, "No, no, no." It was as if he almost felt he would give them enough by restoring the power for them and that would be good enough. It was almost like it was a favour to provide a service that customers are paying for, and will pay for regardless of whether they have the service. That was the response. The Government needs to be pushing hard on the ESB. The PSO levy and the standing charges should be suspended for any customer who was without power for whatever length or period it was. Customers should receive a goodwill payment from the ESB. The company is making record profits. Its last full year of profit, 2023, was €868 million. It is about time they put their hands in their pockets for the people who have been left without electricity for all of this time, and especially those who have been, and remain, without power today.

There are so many more issues to raise. Homes without chimneys have been put in a particularly vulnerable situation, not only without electricity but also being cold. We have learned that the vulnerable customers register - a list of 97,000 people - is meaningless when it comes to a storm. People who rely on medical devices to live and devices to move, people in wheelchairs and people with electric beds were left at sea during this storm. They are registered as vulnerable but it means nothing. I ask the ESB to look at providing generators to all those on its vulnerable customers list and to do so ahead of any future storm because those vulnerable customers need to be protected. I ask insurance companies to give a guarantee that they will not raise premiums on the back of claims made at the end of all of this. Forestry is a major issue across Roscommon, Leitrim and other parts of the west. It is an unavoidable mess. The ESB needs an urgent action plan in terms of protecting its power lines. The wayleaves are in place in the vast majority of cases for it to do so but it has not done so.

The worst part of the Dáil not being recalled last week - let us face it, we have had 13 weeks of no Dáil business - was the position we were put in. We had to say to people with genuine questions, concerns and queries about supports that we would contact the Minister or the Department and come back to them when we got a reply. We had to leave those people there. It has been unacceptable. I cannot imagine another emergency in this State that would impact so many people where the Dáil would not sit. It has been totally unacceptable. Most of the time, people in the west and north west feel forgotten about and left behind. That is exactly what this Government did to them last week. I would say that is the message from the people in Roscommon-Galway and the people I represent.

Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome the fact that we are having this debate but it should have happened last week. There is no doubt in my mind that if this had happened in Dublin, the Dáil would have sat as a matter of urgency last week. It is outrageous that it did not.

I recognise the immense work that was done by those on the ground, those who worked tirelessly to get water and electricity back, and those who are continuing to do very difficult work on tough terrain, especially given that much of our infrastructure was already completely substandard. I also recognise the incredible work done by communities who came together to help each other and assist in cases of emergency, and continue to do so. What people have suffered over the past two weeks - almost - can only be described as an absolute emergency. Many areas in Galway did not have, and certain areas still do not have, water, electricity, functioning mobile phone networks and broadband. Most fundamentally, they did not have access to 999 calls. That is a health, safety and medical emergency. Health centres located over an hour and a half from Galway city were not prioritised. They had no electricity. Medication and vaccines had to be dumped. There was no way for vulnerable people to contact their health centres and there was no way for doctors to contact hospitals, pharmacies or anyone in the outside world. To me, that is terrifying. A family tried to ring 999 in a medical emergency but could not do so because the 999 call was not working. They were completely cut off, with no help. When a generator went on fire, no one could contact the fire brigade. People had to physically run to a fireman who they knew for assistance. One public health nurse told me that she was checking on a man in his 80s in her community. The man had not left his bed in his house, because the house was so cold, for over a week. He had no electricity or heat. She told me that when she touched his hand, she had touched warmer corpses. We are failing our vulnerable and older people. We are failing our newborn babies who left hospitals to go to their new homes that did not have water or electricity. Those with sleep apnoea could not use their machines and had to go to accident and emergency services.

Pensions and other social welfare payments could not be accessed because post offices could not open. This was at a time when people had increased costs due to lack of power and at a time when people were already living week to week. We need to have a plan for that in the future.

I have heard suggestions from the Government that this was a once-in-a-lifetime storm. Many people had never heard of any kind of storm like that. We understand that, but it was not the first time this happened in places such as Conamara. In November, there was a two-week period when people had no access to phone or broadband services and did not have electricity for a period of time. When they hear people say that this was a once-in-a-lifetime event, but they know it is happening to them on a regular basis, they feel like they are not listened to, they are not heard and nobody knows what is happening.

In our roles as public representatives and in our clinics, we all hear difficult stories, some of which haunt us more than others. I will read one such story to the House:

Storm Darragh was not that long ago and we were left without power for 4 or 5 days. My father sat in the house trying to keep warm until the heating could be used again. During these days my father got pneumonia and ended up in hospital where he died... My mother is dealing with the grief of losing her husband and now we have had to repair our roof and need to dry out a room that has water damage done to it.

That is the real-life impact. We all realise how horrific that is. That is why we all need to work together to come up with key and urgent solutions for when this happens again because it will happen again and it is still impacting people out there.

All health centres need to have a generator. That needs to be an immediate priority. They need to have access to satellite phones so that at least in those health centres, people can access electricity and can access a phone. All water pumps need to have generators as well. We cannot have a situation where people cannot access water, especially for newborn babies who cannot use the store-bought water. We need to know exactly where vulnerable people are and how we can help them. Exactly how we can help them is crucial because it is life or death for these people.

A massive job of work needs to be done to invest in basic infrastructure because without such investment, we do not have basic services. That is a massive job of work. We need to have the short-term quick solutions, such as those generators and the satellite phones, but we also need to invest in basic infrastructure. The poles are literally rotting. They are just breaking. The lack of investment that has happened is crazy. I really hope the Government listens to this.

Communication has been very poor. People understand that it was a bad storm but communication has been particularly poor. People do not know what services they can access. They do not know what supports they can access. Much of the time, because the Dáil was not sitting, we did not know what services could be accessed. Businesses do not know what is going on and people really need help.

Tá a fhios agam go raibh an tAire amuigh i gConamara le linn na stoirme seo. Tá a fhios agam go raibh sé ag labhairt le daoine agus gur chonaic sé cé chomh dona is atá agus a bhí sé. An rud is mó atá mé ag iarraidh a rá go soiléir anseo ná go raibh sé chomh huafásach sin do dhaoine. Bhí daoine préachta leis an bhfuacht. Ní raibh uisce acu. Níl uisce acu fós. Níl leictreachas acu. Táthar ag rá leo go mbeidh leictreachas acu lá éigint. Bhí sé ceaptha a bheith aréir nó anocht, ach anois tá sé le bheith acu an tseachtain seo chugainn. Teastaíonn an infheistíocht chuí sa bhuninfreastruchtúr ionas go bhfuil na bunseirbhísí ag daoine. Tógfaidh sé sin am agus go leor airgid ach tá sé sin ag teastáil. Ní fiú a rá i gceann bliana arís, nó i gceann coicíse, nach raibh muid ag súil leis seo. Teastaíonn an plean sin agus an plean fadtéarmach agus caithfimid ar fad oibriú le chéile ar an gceist sin.

Chomh maith leis sin, teastaíonn gineadóirí ó chuile ionad sláinte. Tá fhios ag an Aire ó bheith amuigh i gConamara cé chomh fada amach is atá siad ón ospidéal. Mura bhfuil siad in ann glaoch a chur ar 999 agus dul i dteagmháil leis an ionad sláinte, céard gur féidir leo a dhéanamh? Teastaíonn gineadóirí agus fóin satailíte ó na hionaid sláinte sin. Tá gá le gineadóirí le haghaidh na pumpaí uisce ionas go mbeidh ar a laghad uisce ag daoine. Tá sé sin fíorthábhachtach.

Tá sé soiléir ón mhéid atá tarlaithe le coicís anuas cé chomh deacair is atá cúrsaí do dhaoine áirithe, daoine leochaileacha ach go háirithe. Teastaíonn liosta soiléir dóibh siúd atá cabhair uathu, agus liosta den mhéid gur féidir linn a dhéanamh do na daoine sin. I ndáiríre, is iad na príomhrudaí a chaithfidh tarlú ná go mbeidh gineadóirí ann agus go mbeidh infheistíocht sa bhuninfrastruchtúr. Ní hé seo an chéad uair ar tharla sé seo i gConamara - tharla sé dhá mhí ó shin. Tá daoine braon de seo. Tuigeann siad go dtarlóidh sé arís agus go bhfuil siad scartha amach ó chuile dhuine eile. Níl siad in aice leis an gcathair. Níl siad in aice leis na bunseirbhísí atá ag teastáil. Ba bhreá liom go mbeadh muid ar fad in ann oibriú le chéile le réitigh de chineál éigin, fadtéarmach agus gearrthéarmach, a fháil ar an gceist seo.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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Tréaslaím leis an Aire on his new role. I wish him the best of luck. What a baptism of fire. Coming from Mayo, the same county as myself, the Minister, Deputy Calleary, will know how much we have suffered over the last two weeks. The Minister will also know it is absolutely unacceptable that 13 days after the storm people have no light and no water. I know the Minister will also have got all of the cases that have come across my desk in the last two weeks of the real hardship people have suffered with this storm. I put it to the Minister that the response was not good enough and it was not urgent enough. We knew in the days running into this storm that it would be unprecedented and that there had been nothing like it. We are very used to the harshest of storms in the coastal areas but we knew this was going to be something different. The crews should have been there, they should have been on standby and things should have been in place to be able to ensure that vulnerable people in particular were looked after. It is wholly unacceptable that there are people still sitting in Mayo who do not know when they will have light or water. As my colleagues have said, the Dáil should have been back here immediately. I feel that if there was a similar catastrophe in Dublin we would be back here sitting in the Dáil. It is not good enough.

I was on Midwest Radio this morning and I said that I had been frightened all week that something was going to happen and that somebody was going to die as a result of this in Mayo. I extend my condolences to the family of the man in Donegal who lost his life. Very shortly after this somebody from our own constituency rang me to describe to me how the equipment his father was using could not be used. He had the mattress, the sleep apnoea machine, and several other pieces of equipment. When he went to take him to the doctor his father died in front of them. That is the tragedy of it. That is how urgent this is.

I cannot understand why the Army was not brought in from day one. We have Defence Forces personnel and they should be trained in all of these things if they are not already trained. If they are not then I suggest they immediately are trained because we will have more storms like this. We did not have the Army in. We did not have the Dáil coming back. It took a number of days for the humanitarian aid to be put in place or to say that people could have alternative accommodation. This does not say "urgency" to me. There are lessons to be learned here but, as with many things, I fear that lessons do not get learned.

I really want to thank Midwest Radio. We would be absolutely lost without Midwest Radio for communication. When my colleagues and I met the ESB last week I said that they should be taking out adverts on Midwest Radio to communicate with people as well. I hope the role the radio station has played in this will be remembered when funding is distributed for broadcasting. Without the radio people would be completely lost altogether.

We talked about farmers earlier. We absolutely have to get farmers' sheds replaced as well. As the Minister will be aware, so many of these farmers are already waiting for their ACRES payments. On top of this now they have no sheds. Many farmers have lost fodder. I hear that an oyster farm has lost €160,000 worth of equipment and products. We cannot sit back. We must put schemes in place but the schemes have to be accessible and we have to get rid of the bureaucracy with it. That Uisce Éireann does not have generators is absolutely crazy and must be fixed. This also applies to the group water schemes. Funding must be made available for this.

This has laid absolutely bare how Mayo and rural Ireland have been neglected, and how the ESB and EirGrid have been let away by Governments not making the investments that needed to be made. Again, years ago we asked EirGrid so many times - back when I was on the council - to put some of those lines underground. They told us barefaced lies when they said it could not be done even though we knew from other countries that it could be done. There are many things to be learned from this. We need action on it. The most immediate action we need is for water and electricity be to reinstated within hours to the areas where it has not yet been, and particularly in Mayo.

Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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When I got up this morning the first thing I had to do was go out and get a five-gallon drum and a drop of petrol to put it in the generator. For the last three days we have had a generator that I borrowed from somebody else when their power came back. The network said the power would be back today but now it is saying that it will be next Sunday before it will be back for the five or six houses around me. This is the case for hundreds and thousands of people across my constituency and the whole north west who are left without power. They continually get these communications telling them that it is going to come back and then it does not. Then it is a couple of days more and they are waiting and hoping it will come back soon. Before we got the generator it was hot water bottles and a Superser heater. The novelty wears off very quickly and it has worn off an awful lot of people. We are healthy and we are fine but there are hundreds of people out there who have children with disabilities in the house, who have very elderly parents in the house, and who simply cannot cope. They feel very much left alone and left aside in all of this.

The majority of these problems, perhaps 70% or 80%, are caused by afforestation. Forests have grown up. Where the power lines go through the forests there is supposed to be a 10 m corridor. Trees, however, have grown 30 m tall and one does not need to be a genius to know that when the wind comes they will fall on the lines. There are hundreds of trees on top of power lines. I have seen them and walked through them, and hundreds of trees on top of the trees that are on top of the power lines. I spoke to some of the French people who came over here to assist - and they are all doing tremendous work, as are the ESB people and the people from the local authorities from everywhere - but they said they cannot understand why we have let the trees so close to the power lines. They ask "What is going on in this country?" I know why. It is because profit was the driving force when afforestation was going in and big grants were available. The more land planted the more money one got. Five years ago, when the Dáil sat in the convention centre, I brought forward a Bill that proposed a requirement for planning permission for forestry. It was voted down by practically everybody in the House, bar Sinn Féin. It was voted down and people said "No". If we had planning permission for such forestry then the local authorities would at least have some control over what is going on. There is no control whatsoever.

On the issue of welfare and the problems out there that have been mentioned, there are farmers with sheds down, roofs are gone and businesses have lost massive amounts of money where whole freezers full of food are gone. They have insurance but under the insurance there are rules, one of which concerns whether it was caused by an overall outage, in which case one gets nothing. Something needs to be done for them. There is also the rule whereby the first €500 of the claim is not paid, for example. If the total claim is for €800, €900 or €1,000 the person may not put in a claim if he or she was only to get a small bit of it, yet because they have an insurance policy they are entitled to nothing according to the Government.

There needs to be some way of looking after these people. The Government has let people down in this situation. I absolutely understand that this storm was unprecedented and the worst we have ever seen but a whole lot of issues were foreseeable. A lot of people, or anyone with a bit of cop on, could tell that power lines going through forests beside trees that were growing 30 m tall were going to be brought down. Anyone would tell you that; we have all seen that. I have been preaching this for years and nobody will listen because all that matters is profit. That is the problem in this country. We have to recognise that there need to be clear avenues for the power lines to go through so the trees will not bring them down on top of people.

There are issues in respect of welfare. Hundreds of people get in touch with my office all the time who have filled in the humanitarian assistance forms but cannot get any response. They only get a pittance of money.

Freezers are a big issue. People have lost the contents of their freezers and are told it does not matter because it is not an immediate need. For people who go to their freezer and take out the food to thaw for eating that day, it is an immediate need but they are told they cannot get money for it. There needs to be a rethink about that. The Government needs to recognise that many people live by buying food and having it in their freezer to use. They did not put it there forever. They put it there so they could take it out and eat it some day. Now that it is gone, they are told it is hard luck. That is simply not good enough.

The Defence Forces were mentioned. I have seen no members of the Defence Forces in Leitrim and I have been around a lot of the forests. None of them are doing anything. They could be there. We do not need skilled workers. We need people to pull lines 300 m or 400 m through the forest. We need people to carry tools for the technicians who are going to put up what is necessary. The Defence Forces could do all that work but have not been called out. There is so much we could do. I hear on the radio all the time that one of the causes of this problem is that people living in rural areas are living in the wrong places. I live approximately 1 km from a village and 200 m from the N4 and the main Sligo to Dublin railway line. I am not in the middle of nowhere and I have no power. People who live in rural areas also deserve to have services. This Government must stand up for those people. We have been sitting around for the two weeks since this storm happened. The whole country is in absolute devastation and the Government refused to come back and sit. It is ridiculous.

Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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Hear, hear.