Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I add my voice of recognition and congratulation on the amazing work that has been done by so many people in responding to what has been a one-in-a-hundred-year event. In the first instance I want to recognise the staff of the ESB and the local authorities and the tremendous amount of voluntary effort that was put in. However, I throw in a word of caution to those seeking to jump on the bandwagon and trying to blame all of this on politicians and on the Government. There are 15 members of the Government. While there are those who are suggesting it is all their fault, quite a lot of people do not buy that game, quite frankly. It is a populist and popular thing to attack the Government but there are many people working behind the scenes in government.

They are voters, too, by the way. They are in the local authorities and the ESB. They and their families see it as an attack on them. Let us be cautious and careful here. Let us recognise that we need to take a lot of learnings and have a lot of work to do to be better prepared in the future. That is not all down to a Minister, or two or three Ministers; it is down to many people. The people I have spoken about are angry and upset. They do not necessarily blame the Minister. They might say that to the Deputy opposite; that is a matter between him and them. They want the country to be better prepared and in a stronger position to address the crisis. We need to ensure that those hubs are better in place. It is an attack on the CEO of the local authority when the Deputy suggests that they are not in place. The funding is always there. With respect, the Deputy knows full well money is not an issue at the minute. It might be to the Deputy, but not to the local authorities.

I visited locations the other day and met with staff in a local authority. They are not telling me that they did not respond because there was a shortage of money, quite frankly. They are working now to address this. There are issues about the clearing of ESB lines and of course we have to engage and interact with Coillte, but not just Coillte. I have heard Deputies jump on Coillte because that is an easy one. However, we should not forget that there are many private landholders who are responsible for forests. If they are suggesting that the responsibility lies on the owners of forests, they are putting a burden on small farmers who have small plantations and cannot afford it. A word of caution in their effort to blame the Government for everything: just be a bit more careful.

See this speech in context