Keira Keogh (Mayo, Fine Gael)

It is welcome that a review is taking place. All of us, including my colleague from Mayo, are scarred by what we witnessed during Storm Éowyn. I would like to know how many people on the alarms are still on the old copper telephone lines. We need to look at this retrospectively. I understand the review is not supposed to be finished until next summer and I am worried about our preparedness for this winter. This relates to vulnerable adults in their nineties whose panic alarms go down. First the ESB goes down. They wait for the electricity to come back and then realise the problem is the telephone line, and Eir does not have the wayleave rights necessary to get onto properties. Following Storm Éowyn, it was weeks and sometimes months before an alarm was restored. If there is family nearby, they have to move in for days and communities try to rally around. I was awake in my bed at night thinking something was going to happen to a 90- or 100-year-old on their own in their bed.

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