Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy for raising this. I agree with his points on the severity of the storm. Actually, I would be confident on that one, in terms of mutual aid assistance. I met with the ESB, Irish Water and others in the review and we did not pick up a sense that there was any foot-dragging or difficulty in terms of overseas engineers coming to Ireland from the UK or France, and crews coming to Ireland to help us in our hour of need. The French were particularly responsive. From memory, I think the United Kingdom was particularly responsive, just as we are via these mutual aid agreements when storms occur on the Continent. I will again check with the Minister and with the ESB. I would favour more mutual aid programmes, particularly with Europe, people who are near. That is the key in any major weather catastrophe, event or whatever. The most effective mutual aid programmes are those in close proximity to us.

See this speech in context