Eamon Scanlon (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As it is my first time to speak in the Thirty-fourth Dáil, I thank my supporters, my canvassers, my wife Anne and my family for the great work they did in the recent general election.

This was the worst storm this country has experienced in living memory; there is no question about that. Were we ready? I do not think we were because it was the worst ever storm I ever experienced anyway. Lessons must be learned from this one. We were not ready. There are many things we need to do. We have to learn from our experiences over the last 15 days. I was speaking to families this morning who are 15 days without electricity. I have spoken to elderly people, vulnerable people and families with young children. I spoke to a lady yesterday who is on her second bout of chemotherapy. The hotel is not an option for them because she has a little girl suffering from autism. This is happening right across the spectrum in south Sligo and Leitrim. There is no question about it.

I acknowledge the work done by the workers. They are out there doing their best but the problem is so vast that we need to get more people. I understand there are 3,000 people in the north-west region hoping to get the power back. It seems to be back everywhere else. On the power check idea, how do you check your power when you have no phone? It cannot be done. Much more needs to be done. The ESB needs to do a lot more to make people aware. I recognise the work done by Ocean FM and Midwest Radio and their help during the crisis, but the message was vague from the ESB. Surely there is somebody who can tell people in a certain area that they will have their electricity back in two, three or four days, or whatever it is. We had people who were told it would be back in two days and then the days were pushed out again and again for another four or five days. That is not fair on people. I do not accept that.

The ESB knows all its vulnerable customers. There is no doubt that this is going to happen again. There is no question about it. We should have a grant scheme for people in vulnerable areas where there are likely to be bad storms and trees falling on lines. A grant should be given to people in such areas to help them to purchase a generator so that they are ready for the next time. People are quite honestly at their wits' end. They are very annoyed and I can genuinely feel their pain when speaking to them. They are totally and absolutely distressed with what has happened. An independent body like the Department of agriculture - not Coillte or the private foresters - should do a survey. If the lines are running through a forest, a survey should be done to check that there is sufficient space to ensure that if a tree falls, it is not going to fall down on an electric cable. That needs to be done and it is not a difficult job to do. We know where the lines are and we know where they are going over the forest. If there is an issue and it is possible that trees are going to fall on lines again, those trees should be cut down now, and not after they fall on a line.

Another issue that was raised relates to community welfare officers. Some years ago, those officers were taken out of the community and put into the centre of a town, in our case Sligo. Community welfare officers would be better out in their local communities where people can access them. Everybody thinks everybody has a car. They do not all have a car and they are depending on neighbours to get into the local town to go to meet a community welfare officer. A lot needs to be done from that point of view, particularly in a crisis, so that people can easily contact a community welfare officer and speak to him or her.

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