Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate all of the Ministers on their appointments. We certainly feel there are too many Ministers and we would not like to see the Government's replication of what was there in the past because we have seen many failures in it.

As I rise to speak on the programme for Government, it strikes me that, in my part of the world, we have seen everything on which people depend shook to its very core by the storm. Thousands of people are still without power. We still have schools closed and major problems. People are very frustrated. My office is inundated with calls, messages and text messages from all kinds of people who are pulling their hair out. Nobody seems to be listening. We have thousands of people with no power. Elderly people who need equipment at home cannot manage. People have not been able to eat at home. They have not had food at home for days because they do not have power in the house. They have to eat out even though they cannot afford to do that. The Minister for Social Protection introduced the humanitarian assistance scheme whereby people could get some assistance but it is not working. In Carrick-on-Shannon today, there was a queue around the corner of people coming in with forms. The forms were just being taken off them and they were being told someone would get back to them. That is no good to people. The scheme has been an utter failure. It is a reflection of how the Government has failed the people in the west and north west of the country. It is obnoxious and wrong. Many people feel let down and abandoned because of what has happened. They are still like this. The Government does not recognise or understand the absolute rage out there because of this in so many communities.

The vast majority of the problems are due to afforestation, with power lines going through forestry and trees falling on top of them because the trees are planted 10 m from the lines and they grow 30 m tall. One does not need to be a genius to know they will fall on the lines when the wind comes. Today, there is work being done on mounting for plantations in County Longford where the trees will be 10 m from the lines. In 20 years' time, those trees will fall on the lines.

What is happening is preposterous. I have seen six ESB crews going into forestry to try to resolve the situation, pulling wires in and trying to carry equipment in. There was no sign of the Defence Forces. The Ministers here last night thanked the Defence Forces. If members of the Defence Forces assisted with this, at least we could split those into two groups and get double the amount of work done. Nothing is happening for so many people out there. We are talking about a programme for Government but as far as I can see it is a programme for disaster that this Government is presiding over. We need urgent action. We need to get the Defence Forces on the ground in counties Sligo, Leitrim and Mayo, in these areas that have been so badly affected. We absolutely need to get them now, but it should have happened two weeks ago. It has been totally ignored. We need to see action by the Government in respect of this. If we do not see this action, I do not know where people are going to turn. So many people are so disappointed, disillusioned, annoyed and frustrated with everything that has happened around the response to this storm. I know the workers from the ESB, from the local authorities and from all the other agencies have been doing their best. For example, Leitrim County Council was giving vouchers for food. That was stopped today. Sligo County Council is still doing it. Why is there this absence of co-ordination, absence of joined-up thinking from anywhere? People do not know what is going on.

I have no power in my house. This morning we got a text from the ESB network telling us our power was restored last night at 8.57 p.m. If the power was restored last night, I would bloody well know about it. It is not back. Thousands of people are getting the same messages telling them that the power is back, when they are sitting in the dark. Thousands of people are getting messages telling them their power will be back next Wednesday. When Tuesday evening or Wednesday comes, they are told it will be another three or four days. This is going on and on.

I have walked around where this forestry is and it will be weeks before people will see their power restored, probably three or four weeks in some cases, because there are hundreds of trees on top of power lines and hundreds of trees on top of those trees. Yet, we do not see any sense of urgency from Government to put in place any kind of emergency response. If this happened in any other part of the country, the Army and the Civil Defence would be out, everyone would be out, but they have not been sent to the west or the north west. I want to know why. Why is this Government letting down the people of my constituency and the parts of the country that have been worst affected by this storm? Why are they being left behind?

The other important issue is that people are being charged standard charges for ESB and for power when they do not have any power. Are they going to continue to pay those charges? It is absolutely ridiculous.

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