Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I echo what has been said regarding the response of the emergency services and those on the front line. I include in that another group, namely, the people who went out of their way who make sure their neighbours were safe. They are very rarely recognised. I know of one instance where an elderly man had been without contact with any other human for three days before his neighbours went out with chainsaws to take away the trees that were on the road and enable him to get out of his property. We should recognise people like that.

My constituents were left with no electricity, Internet or mobile telephone signal and, in many cases, no water. Their homes, sheds and businesses were damaged. Their lives were damaged. An offer of hope was put out initially by the Taoiseach, followed by the Minister for enterprise in respect of businesses, by way of the humanitarian assistance scheme. This followed what was, and was predicted to be, one of the most powerful storms ever to hit Ireland. When that offer was pulled away for some, it really was like rubbing salt in their wounds. The Minister spoke of preventing hardship. A man in my area in his 80s who lives alone was very fearful of the storm. He used what little savings he had to get in some extra meagre supplies in order that he could stay safe by not leaving home. He had to put all those supplies in the bin when his electricity went and his freezer stopped working. He was refused humanitarian assistance. That is a new low. It is finding a new bottom of the barrel to scrape. People were encouraged to apply for the scheme but staff in the Minister's Department seem to have been operating in somewhat of an information vacuum. When I spoke to them on occasion, they did not realise that constituents of mine had been refused payment. Their applications were still shown as pending on the computer system, despite my having the letters of refusal in my hand. Those letters were unsigned and undated. The lesson that should ring home very clearly for the Government is not the mantra that lessons will be learned but the RTÉ headline, "Do they know we're still here?". That is a question that should never have to be asked by anybody after a storm like Storm Éowyn.

The Minister's figures suggest that the €6.8 million that has been paid out is for 28,000 claims, which amounts to approximately €240 per application. A total of 76,000 claims were received but he failed to mention how many have been refused. It is crystal clear that the scheme needs to be reviewed urgently. With the Chair's indulgence, I cannot speak about Storm Éowyn without mentioning another Éowyn, my daughter, who is also a force of nature but for good.

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