Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue again today. I had the chance to visit parts of Meath and Kildare yesterday to witness some of the repair work that was underway and the excellent work of ESB staff who had been working 12 hours at that stage to reconnect people. I met some of the people affected by loss of power, including some young families. The children were delighted they got two days off school but aside from that, the householders were very much affected by the fact that they could not have normal day-to-day lives. I also met some people with disabilities who clearly had particular concerns. As things stand, 70% of people who lost power have now had their power restored. That is 255,000 homes and businesses. So far this morning, 11,000 homes and businesses have been reconnected. This leaves 125,000 without power. Work is continuing to restore power to those homes and businesses. Assistance is now coming in from Northern and Great Britain through Scottish Power and from France in the coming days. It is anticipated that the vast majority of remaining homes and businesses will be connected in the next three days but there may be exceptions to that, particularly in some isolated areas. We know from Storm Darwin that it took about eight days to connect everyone and this storm was much worse than that one.

The number of households considered at risk of losing water is down by 80% so it is down from 260,000 households to 56,000. Of those who have lost water, more than half have now been restored. Irish Water is working with the ESB to restore supply and reduce risk. The key issue is connecting the water treatment plants to the power network. Where that cannot be done, generators will be installed in water treatment plants as a temporary fix while the power lines are reconnected. There are 3,000 local authority staff across many disciplines, including fire, road staff, engineers and health and safety officers, who are on the ground assisting with the clean up and repair efforts. I particularly want to recognise the Defence Forces who have deployed two army chainsaw teams to clear roads. The Defence Forces will deploy a 10,000 litre water tanker to assist Kilkenny County Council to provide emergency water services to people in Kilkenny. Water was restored this morning to Killmagany. The Defence Forces have also deployed Air Corps helicopters which are flying over the power lines carrying out reconnaissance for ESB Networks and informing it of where the faults occur. A total of 30 personnel from the Defence Forces have been deployed in support of the national response and a further 15 Defence Forces personnel and five vehicles were deployed to assist the gardaí in Galway. The army is helping HSE staff get to their workplaces in Kilkenny and to clear routes in Kenmare and Tralee.

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