Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We all appreciate just how ferocious this storm was. I join with the Taoiseach in expressing sympathy to the family of the young man, Kacper Dudek, so tragically killed. It is simply unacceptable, however, that we still have 18,000 homes, farms and businesses without power so many days on from the outbreak of the storm. It is clear that much more urgent action is necessary from the Government to invest the money we in the Labour Party called on it to invest in the grid. We called for investment of some of the Apple moneys in building up the grid so that we would build in that resilience.

There is also the issue of the lack of supports for households. One constituent told me that she recalls during Covid how swiftly funding was put in place for the hospitality industry to be able to serve outside, just for example. Why do we not see funding available from the Government to provide those in the most affected areas with support to put in place measures to mitigate against inevitable future power outages?

These include the generator supplies that the Taoiseach mentioned and the sort of emergency backup facilities that were so sadly lacking in many of the most affected areas. What we want to hear today from the Taoiseach is a clear outline of substantive measures that can be put in place now to support families.

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