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

The Minister will be aware that we have a large volume of forestry in County Leitrim. We probably have the highest amount of forestry in the country per head of population or for the land area. That brought huge devastation when the power lines that go through the forests came down. The main issue we have is that the trees are planted too close to the lines. It is as simple as that. ESB Networks has the job of protecting critical infrastructure and it has not done so. That has been the key failure of this entire saga. We saw it in the last storm and again in this one. There are hundreds of trees on top of the lines and hundreds of trees on top of those trees. It takes days and in this case it has taken weeks to fix. Thankfully, the vast majority of people have their power back now, but there has to be an emphasis on ensuring that there is a clear policy to protect those power lines and cut the trees back from them because when the next storm comes we will have the same problem again. That has to happen. The Government has to do that. There is no other way out of it.

The other issue I will raise relates to the humanitarian assistance scheme. Hundreds of people who have put in forms have contacted my office. They have not received any money yet and do not know where they stand. It is ad hoc and a complete mess of a scheme. There needs to be a revamp of that scheme to ensure it does what it is supposed to do. When someone has a freezer full of food and the food has all gone to waste, the scheme should pay for it. People have been told it will not pay for that. They have been told to contact their insurance. When they contact the insurance companies, some say they will cover it, but one woman told my office that the food would cost €800, but an additional €600 per year would go onto her insurance for the next three years because she would lose her no-claims bonus.

Issues also arise due to the excess on insurance policies that businesses in particular have. Businesses are trying to claim insurance for the loss of goods and damage. They find there is an excess on their policies which they have to try to work with. We need some kind of scheme to be put in place to ensure people can be adequately compensated. ESB Networks should be the first to compensate people. Any time power goes out for more than four or five days, every household should get a payment of €100 per day for every day the power is out. It would put a bit of a spark under them to ensure people were not without power for too long.

Businesses should certainly be getting compensated. I spoke to a businessperson last week who has a small business in rural Ireland that sells pre-cast concrete. It has not been able to do anything for almost three weeks and it will probably be even longer before it can get back to work. Small businesses, including restaurants and hotels, have suffered greatly because of the mess that is in place, mainly because ESB Networks has not protected its critical infrastructure, that is, the lines that go through forests. That needs to change, but we also need the Government to ensure people are adequately compensated and looked after in these circumstances.

Many old people and people with disabilities were hugely stressed because of the situation-----

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