Sinéad Gibney (Dublin Rathdown, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I too welcome this motion. Gabhaim buíochas le Sinn Féin as ucht an rún seo a chur os comhair na Dála.

I wish to speak to three main points in my comments. I will discuss the impact that these weather events are having on communities, lives and livelihoods across Ireland, our need to build climate resilience and what we really want from assistance schemes in order that they be reliable and effective. The key message is that we are not asking the Government to control the weather. We understand that is not possible, but we have a collective responsibility in the Dáil to protect people from the elements and the impacts of climate change, which are worsening by the day.

When we think about the impact of the recent storms in particular on communities, lives and livelihoods across Ireland, we have to consider those workers, for example, who did not get paid during closures, the small businesses and farms with many losses from those closures and the damage to their property and machinery. We think about the older people and people with disabilities who felt vulnerable, isolated and forgotten as they had to seek power to charge up their medical equipment and to keep their homes warm. My constituency of Dublin Rathdown was thankfully spared from most of the major damage, but we know of the significant damage to people's homes across the country from Storm Éowyn and other recent storms.

What we believe in the Social Democrats is that there is a need to build climate resilience. Again, we are not asking anyone to control the weather, but the science is telling us that the weather is becoming more and more severe. We know that emissions are continuing to rise globally, so this is not going to change. We need to act now to upgrade infrastructure, to deal with the grid shortcomings we have and to invest in these prevention schemes and mitigation measures that will actually mean these storms can be weathered by our communities and our people. We need to protect homes and communities from the change in the climate overall.

I too acknowledge the incredible work done during the storm by communities and front-line workers. Thousands of front-line workers, including those from ESB, Uisce Éireann and EirGrid and council workers, worked incredibly hard to get us back to normal. Their efforts must be commended. Tá mé thar a bheith buíoch díobh. Rinne siad scoth na hoibre ag am iontach deacair.

The assistance schemes have to be more reliable and effective than what we have seen rolled out recently. People generally, certainly in my own community in Dublin Rathdown, are really understanding of the disruption these weather events bring and of the disruption that is required for the State to roll out the measures in response. However, they start becoming very worried and very stressed when there are severe delays in the provision of that assistance. When there is uncertainty about what help is available to people, they feel as if they are completely on their own. It is already difficult to run a business, keep a farm going and make ends meet. We therefore need to make sure that storms such as this one do not cost people further, and certainly that they do not cost people their livelihoods. The lesson we now need to learn from this is that we need to be better prepared, to be more climate resilient and to provide reassurance to ordinary people that they will not be left in the dark and thousands out of pocket by an act of nature ever again.

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