Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy is entirely right. As he and I know, nobody is more willing to get stuck in, help out and serve their country than the men and women of Óglaigh na hÉireann. It is important to have an even greater level of clarity in terms of interagency response. I will certainly reflect and engage with the Defence Forces in my own Department regarding the medical skills and assistance point. I thank the Deputy for making that point.

I agree with Deputy Daly. We have to recognise that there are certain things we have to do at a national level. There is no passing the buck in that regard. Where things worked well was at a local level. One of the things we have to do, and I know this a view shared by our colleagues, the Taoiseach, all members of the Government and Government parties, is resource local communities and empower local authorities. Where is the generator in the community? Where are the emergency shower facilities? What is the plan if the telecommunications network goes down? We are all so reliant on technology these days. What is available in terms of the Civil Defence? Without pre-empting the review, I am very confident that mapping that out better at a local level and the Government resourcing, financing and supporting it will be one of the things in it.

One thing that worked well is the red weather alert. While I am very conscious that one man tragically lost his life - we think of him and his family - it is a near miracle that we did not see even more fatalities. There is a lot of nonsense on social media regarding the scaremongering of weather warnings. One of the lessons that needs to be learned from this is that these weather warnings are serious. When they are put in place, they are put in place for a reason. We should encourage our authorities to continue to do what they were doing, being forthcoming, honest and blunt with the Irish people in this regard, because I have no doubt that it helped save lives.

I agree with the Deputy regarding trees. We are now spending a fair whack of money every year putting electricity poles and wires that have been knocked down by trees back up. It is not a sustainable situation. We need more trees in the country. We all love trees, but we need to put them in the right place.

See this speech in context