Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I commend those who helped individuals, families and communities following the devastation of Storm Éowyn. These include workers from the ESB, Uisce Éireann, local authorities and phone companies, those local businesses that stood up to the mark to support their communities, the farmers who cleared roads, and those communities that stood together, opened their halls and ensured that assistance was given where and when it was needed. In many respects, we saw the best of Ireland and the Irish people over the past two weeks.

However, a lot of lessons will have to be learned following the storm. Communities, especially across the Border and in western counties such as Monaghan and Cavan, simply will not tolerate any repeat of the situation that we have experienced over recent times. Once all services have been restored, the priority must be to ensure that we have no repeat of this situation. There is real anger from some sections of our communities. The extent to which phone signal, electricity and water was lost was unprecedented but the real issue is the length of time people were left without those essential services. People feel let down and forgotten because many of the regions worst-affected have never been a priority for the Government. If the worst-affected areas were in Dún Laoghaire and Howth rather than Aghnamullen and Raferagh, I have no doubt that this Dáil would have sat last week. As well as homes, the prolonged outages in the aftermath of the storm have had a huge impact on businesses, schools and other essential services. Lessons need to be learned. There need to be better contingency plans for supporting people when something like this occurs.

I commend all those community and volunteer groups, including GAA clubs and others, which picked up the pieces and put in place facilities such as charging, showers and hot drinks, but as we face into more frequent and stronger storms due to climate change we have to be better prepared. We have taxed people with carbon taxes to push them to get electric cars, to stop burning turf and to get rid of solid fuel stoves only for them to be totally reliant on electricity that some have now been without for 12 days. There needs to be significant investment in the upkeep of our electricity transmission network. We need backup plans for essential services. Communications are crucial. The loss of mobile phone connectivity caused real difficulties leaving many vulnerable people isolated. Hard-pressed families should not be out of pocket as a result of a situation like this.

We know that those who can afford it have spent money on generators, hot food and, in some cases, even alternative accommodation. While access to the immediate needs form without a means test is welcome, it is not enough. The automatic compensation scheme that is in place in Scotland should be considered. Under the Scottish system, households get approximately €1,000 if their power is gone for a week. Here, households are expected to pay the standing charge for a period when they were without power. The ESB, one of the most profitable companies in this country, has suggested it might even hike up prices further as a result of the storm. As households are compensated for power loss of more than 48 hours under the Scottish scheme, there is a clear incentive for energy companies to ensure that the transmission network is maintained.

Forestry, some of which is planted by vulture funds, often brings minimal value to communities. Much of it is not native. Logging trucks are taking a toll on local roads. The only thing that some communities say they get from forestry are prolonged blackouts and power cuts. The forestry sector must also be held to account to ensure that it is not putting the electricity transmission network at risk. The call by farmers for a scheme to remove trees affected by ash dieback disease was never heeded. We paid a heavy price for that as many of the fallen lines were as a result of those trees. That scheme should be in place within a month. I am disappointed that the forestry Minister did not even mention it.

The network has to be resilient. That means planning for the generation ahead and considering undergrounding lines when possible. This should obviously start with new lines. The North-South interconnector, for example, should and must be undergrounded. We should never again have a situation where people are denied water because water treatment plants do not have standby generators. Those generators should be sourced and provided to every public and group water scheme right now. Generators should also be sourced for group homes, including for people with disabilities, and for schools and other essential public buildings, especially in areas that are at most high risk of future blackouts.

In my constituency of Cavan-Monaghan, hundreds of families are still without power. That is not acceptable. The very least that they ask and deserve is an assurance that it will never happen again.

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