Cathy Bennett (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Is onóir mhór í dom labhairt anseo mar Theachta Dála ar an Chabhán agus Muineachán. I am proud to stand here today for the first time as an elected representative of the people of Cavan and Monaghan. Mine is the same constituency that returned hunger striker Kieran Doherty in 1981 and in 1997 returned my friend and colleague, Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, as the first Sinn Féin TD in more than a generation. This same constituency has now returned its strongest Sinn Féin Oireachtas team in living memory which I am honoured to be part of alongside my colleagues Matt Carthy and Pauline Tully. Gabhaim buíochas le mo chlann, le mo chomrádaithe anseo agus le gach duine a thacaigh liom le vóta agus cúnamh. I thank my party colleagues, my family, those who voted for me and all who helped over the course of the campaign.

Storm Éowyn inflicted devastation across this island. While such severe weather events are undeniably becoming more common, there is a feeling among people, especially in rural Ireland, that the devastation was compounded by poor planning. It is hard to dismiss such feelings given the extended period for which many people, including in my own constituency of Cavan-Monaghan, were left without basic utilities such as electricity and water and also because for many, this was not a once-in-a-decade or even a once-in-a year event. Many had experienced similar disruption weeks earlier during Storm Darragh.

Last week I had the opportunity, alongside the Sinn Féin leader, Mary Lou McDonald, to meet those at the coalface who were responding to the storm. We met front-line workers and people in community hubs who were seeking to redress the undue hardship borne by ordinary families and workers. It is them I thank today for responding to what arose from what I can only attribute to poor planning and underinvestment in infrastructure.

I wish to raise two general matters which I am not certain have been addressed as yet and I appeal to the Minister to address them in his closing remarks. The first relates to people who, because they were unable to use the Internet or could not access it, were unable to log on to submit their jobseeker's declaration.

As a result, they have missed out on the social welfare payments for this week that they were entitled to. Will the Minister outline how these payments are going to be recouped? Second, the lack of access to clean drinking water and electricity has had real public health implications in terms of disease being exacerbated, negative mental health implications and nutrition, to name but some. Will the Minister speak to the Government public health response to the storm?

While the ESB and others continue to work to restore power to those still without electricity and water, it is our responsibility now to look to the medium and the long term. How is it that at its peak, upwards of 768,000 ESB customers were without electricity? How was it that such a considerable number of people were without running water? Why is it that people in rural Ireland, like Cavan and Monaghan, are so often expected to endure substandard service levels for critical infrastructure? The terrain may be rougher, the bedrock may be tougher and the population lower than most urban areas, but the scale of the impact does not fully explain the burden my constituents have been forced to bear. To me the answer is clear: a long-standing dearth of investment in critical infrastructure in rural Ireland by successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael governments and a lack of urgency to mitigate the worst impacts of that underinvestment.

To my mind, the key question we must now answer is how we redress these deficiencies. If such severe weather events are to be more common, I ask the Government to do its job and begin today to put in place the measures necessary to ensure that next year, in three years, in five years, and in a decade from now, people from rural counties like Cavan and Monaghan do not decry the Government as simply yet one more that has failed to implement these necessary actions.

I ask the Government to carry out a risk assessment now to prepare for future storms, involving the commissioning of an examination of what existing overground infrastructure can feasibly be put underground in the short, medium and long term, and that would involve EirGrid in particular taking note that newly proposed infrastructure needs to be underground; identifying the scale and scope of emergency generators needed to be at the ready, especially regarding water infrastructure; identifying to what extent battery storage and other resources are capable when required; and considering the extent to which poor planning in terms of trees and forestry compounded the storm's impact. I ask the Government to reflect on the impact of its anti-rural policies, its anti-car policies without sufficiently improving public transport, the carbon tax that increases the price of petrol and diesel irrespective of whether a person can afford a new car or whether sufficient charging infrastructure exists, the Government's ban on turf and much more. I ask the Government to reflect on its policies when it is so patently clear that those in government have not lived up to their end of the bargain and their obligations to deliver the necessary infrastructure to mitigate unreliability.

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