Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Doherty for raising this important question. There is no doubt this storm has caused significant chaos and hardship in many parts of this country, and disproportionately so in the west and north-west of the country; the Deputy is right in that regard. We are all collectively relieved in Ireland, most particularly those communities, that the power is finally back. I know that Deputy Doherty will join me in saying that the Trojan work carried out by workers from the ESB, local authorities, Uisce Éireann and others, on the front line in assisting people has been very important. We should commend and thank them for that.

I wish to make one point, which I said last week. The comments of the chief executive of the ESB, which were perhaps said in a moment of haste or error, were insensitive. I welcome that he was big and decent enough to come out, acknowledge that himself and apologise for the insensitivity of those comments. That is important. In public life, any of us can say something in error or something that is insensitive but it is important to put your hands up afterwards and say that it could have been said in a much better way.

We can come back another day to debate the ministerial presence in the west and north west. In the interests of time, I will not name all my colleagues who serve with diligence in a variety of roles in government. I will come back to that issue another day because we should not actually make the storm a point of political division. In fact, what I have seen over the past number of weeks is this Government working with people the length and breadth of Ireland. Indeed, Sinn Féin ministers were on to me looking for assistance from the Government to help with the storm situation in Northern Ireland because this storm was not partisan. This was a storm that involved everybody who held office putting their shoulder to the wheel and working with agencies and communities in the interest of trying to keep people safe.

I must say that a lot was done right. We have to be conscious that because there was a red weather warning alert, lives were definitely saved in Ireland. In saying that, I, of course, think and acknowledge the loss of the life of Kacper Dudek in the Deputy's constituency. The warning system, however, worked. What we need to get much better at is preparedness and resilience at a community level. If we are being honest with each other, there are parts of the country, even counties that were badly affected, that did better than others in being prepared at that local level by having access to generators and having their local management plans. As part of the Government's review which will kick off shortly, we will need to look at what needs to be done at that local level to build up preparedness. Today, the Taoiseach and I have convened a meeting of relevant Government Ministers to begin to look at exactly how we better prepare for the next storm and for more adverse weather conditions in the future.

As for the financial side, because the Deputy referenced the financial situation, the Minister, Deputy Dara Calleary, who is from the west, led with the Government's humanitarian assistance scheme in which we provided significant financial assistance to many thousands of people to try to help them in a desperately difficult situation, in which the lights were not on and people were trying to still feed and mind children or older people and fulfil care needs. A lot was done and there is a lot of work to do in this regard. I am very clear that the ESB should not - and will not - be gouging any customers on this matter. It has significant resources. The Government also intends to invest significant resources in improving infrastructure. We all, that is, every State agency, commercial or otherwise, Department and every local authority, need to now take the lessons of this storm and be more prepared for future weather events.

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