Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move:

That Dáil Éireann: notes that:

— Storm Éowyn made landfall in Ireland on 23rd January, 2025, breaking all-time record wind speeds; and

— the scale of damage and disruption to transport, energy, water, telecommunications and internet services was unprecedented, exposing the fragility of our infrastructure, in the face of an ever-worsening climate crisis;

further notes that:

— the Humanitarian Assistance Scheme (HAS), was activated on the 23rd January, 2025, to assist all those affected across the country by Storm Éowyn;

— the scheme was intended to offer immediate supports, including to provide food or shelter (Stage 1); replacement of white goods and other essential household items (Stage 2); or to provide supports to ensure the home or accommodation of the applicant was brought back to a habitable condition in the aftermath of a storm (Stage 3);

— those right across the country were encouraged to apply for the scheme, with the Taoiseach assuring the public that the scheme was "open to those in need"; and

— the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Peter Burke TD, assured the public that "The Government remains committed to supporting businesses through this recovery period and beyond. We will continue engaging with the business community to monitor emerging needs and ensure appropriate responses are in place.";

notes with concern that:

— some 768,000 homes, farms and businesses were left without electricity in the aftermath of Storm Éowyn, with power only being restored to all homes by 12th February;

— some 270,000 homes were left without internet access in the aftermath of Storm Éowyn with EirGrid taking over two weeks to restore broadband to every affected customer;

— figures indicate that damage to households will total almost €112 million, while commercial claims will run to just under €122 million;

— no humanitarian assistance was provided to businesses or farms;

— the HAS appeared to have closed for an unspecified period of time, and without informing the public;

— thus far, of the 133,774 applications from people in need made to the HAS, only 45,744 has been paid out, that is to say, only 34 per cent of applications to the HAS were ever paid out;

— differing reports suggest that Stage 1 claims were compensated on an ad-hoc case by case basis with no clear instructions on what items merited compensation; and

— to this day, the HAS has only paid out €10.5 million in financial support to applicants, and this is blatantly insufficient given the extent of property damage in the wake of the storm;

commends the work of our frontline ESB, EirGrid and Uisce Éireann workers, together with emergency responders, carers, logistics and supply chain workers and community hub volunteers, volunteers from local GAA clubs and men and women's sheds and other voluntary organisations who worked to relieve the effects of the storm;

condemns the Government for:

— failing to provide clear instructions to departmental staff dealing with HAS application forms to determine what was and was not covered under the scheme; and

— closing the scheme without informing the public; and

calls on the Government to:

— provide clarity as to the duration of the scheme's application window;

— expand the HAS to businesses and farmers;

— ensure a thorough and timely fulfilment of reviews submitted by HAS applicants who have been refused or are not satisfied with the amount awarded; and

— put forward a comprehensive climate adaptation strategy to ensuring all communities will be climate resistant by 2050.

I am sharing time.

The fallout from Storm Éowyn was, for households, businesses and farms alike, unprecedented in its scale. While the majority of the country experienced disruptions to essential infrastructure for a matter of days, I remind the House that a significant number of people's essential needs that depended on water, power, transport and telecommunications infrastructure went unmet for weeks, with 133,000 households applying for support through the humanitarian assistance scheme. Businesses and farmers who endured property damage throughout the country were entirely excluded, with no alternatives provided. The overwhelming consensus from applicants is a feeling of being let down and forgotten about. At no time was this more acute than when the Government appeared to trivialise the impact felt by people when the stores of frozen food went bad.

I pay tribute to our emergency services, to the first responders, to those who came from abroad to assist, to the officials in the Department of Social Protection and especially to those volunteers who manned and womaned, if the House will forgive me the use of that word, the community centres and the hubs. We spoke about this during Question Time last week, and one of the things it highlighted was the deficit in infrastructure, in bricks and mortar, in buildings where people could go to gather. It was really stark in some areas that there simply was not a place that was fit for purpose. They had the volunteers and the people who were willing to help but what they did not have was a bricks-and-mortar building to be able to work out of.

Although the Government has tried recently to claim that the cost-of-living crisis is over, people's lived experience, along with the latest CSO figures and recent research from Damian O'Reilly in TUD, show that, as of today, more than 50% of the population are particularly vulnerable to food price inflation, with many households needing to earn an additional €4,000 per year just to stay in the same financial place they were in in 2021. Food poverty is very real today. The humanitarian assistance scheme promised to meet the cost of essential needs, such as food, clothing and personal items. The Taoiseach himself assured the most vulnerable among the public that the humanitarian assistance scheme was open to those in need. These assurances proved to be somewhat wide of the mark. A shocking two thirds of applications were never paid out. The Government's amendment provides up-to-date data showing that 63% of stage 1 applications for essentials were rejected. Scores of people have reported that their applications were denied without any explanation. That is deeply frustrating for people.

What is worse still is that they report being told by administrators in early March that the scheme was no longer accepting applications, although this had never been publicly announced. It was only after pressure was put on the Government from inside and outside this Chamber that the scheme was reluctantly reopened late last month. There must be accountability for potentially allowing people to fall through the cracks like that. I appreciate that responding to an emergency requires agility and that it does not always necessarily move in a straight line but people were really depending on this. They were living on the Government's every word on the radio and that did not match the supports that were available. The intended provision under the humanitarian assistance scheme was very modest. The scheme is not new and neither is it particularly complicated to administer. It boggles the mind that Government could not manage to devise a straightforward guideline as to what was covered under the scheme and what was not.

In the immediate aftermath of the storm, the Minister for enterprise emphatically assured businesses that the Government remained committed to supporting businesses throughout the recovery period and beyond. He knew full well that the Government had no intention of extending the scheme to businesses. In practice, the Minister clearly stated that businesses were on their own and put them at the mercy of insurance companies, giving no thought to the fact that excesses might be prohibitively high or that premiums could go up so significantly as to render them unpayable next year. The Government's amendment claims that the scheme will provide support where people have a valid reason for non-insurance and can demonstrate that they do not have the resources to make good the losses. However, even after jumping through these hoops, no alternative was offered to businesses such as those in the seafood sector. My colleague, an Teachta Conway-Walsh, has raised the issue of the oyster farmer in the Minister's constituency. I am sure he is well aware of that case. We have heard of numerous cases of businesses in the hospitality sector that had to shut for the full three weeks. The loss in revenue is particularly acute given that tourist numbers are down on last month.

With each new weather event on this island, we resort to another descriptor but storms like Storm Éowyn are no longer "once in a lifetime" events. Climate change is real. It is happening and it is changing our landscape more quickly than we ever would have thought. Future humanitarian assistance schemes cannot unfold the way this one has. They must be accessible, have clear guidelines and be transparent and there must be timely review mechanisms.

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