Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein)

Gabhaim buíochas leis na finnéithe as ucht a bheith anseo inniu. Taking from inspiration from an tUachtarán, Catherine Connolly, tá mé ag iarraidh níos mó Gaeilge a úsáid gach lá. Tá sé tábhachtach go mbeimid go léir ag déanamh níos mó chun í a labhairt. Obviously for our Gaeltacht communities, it is not an extra or something we can just do as a choice. My family came from a Gaeltacht area. Although my aunt lived in Dublin all her life, she had to do anything numerical in her brain through Gaeilge. I understand that in an emergency it is absolutely important that information is disseminated as quickly as possible. However, there are people in Gaeltacht areas who speak Irish.

My question is for Mr. Ó Domhnaill. What kind of important information do they receive from the State as Gaeilge? How did they find that during the emergency of Storm Éowyn, and in the context of setting up and making sure vulnerable citizens did not get left behind when the storm hit?

There is also the question of interagency co-ordination. How can the different bodies make sure climate justice is part of the preparedness? For people with disabilities, I know we had a journalist who was without power for three or four weeks. She could not use her electrical wheelchair. We have to focus on the social inequalities that Storm Éowyn made obvious. A lot of rural TDs are talking about trees. I remember from when I was a local authority councillor the need to get dead trees removed from lines and get them out of danger. We cannot throw the baby out with the bath water and get rid of all trees. That would be like trying to effect climate change.

It was mentioned that the responses from individual landowners were positive and agreements were taking time. What does this look like and what needs to be agreed for the ESB to be satisfied that critical forest corridors are being created? How far away are we from that?