Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

How was it that one week after the storm, emergency hubs were only being set up? The Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, was on the radio and said that there had been far too long a delay in getting everything set up. It is clear that there were problems with doing so. The one thing people from the west and the north west who rang radio stations consistently stated was that they felt abandoned and that no one was looking out for them. They were not getting direct contact from the Government.

The ESB did an amazing job. It had thousands of people out in the worst weather - the type of weather that we would never consider going out in - and working in its call centres. The ESB did a really good job on this but it should not have been left to do it by itself. There should have been a whole-of-government approach.

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