Naoise Ó Muirí (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister of State. It is good to hear that it has been trialled and it is getting up and running. This system will build greater resilience in our emergency communications. As the Minister of State said, it is kind of a system of systems so it gives us a last resort in terms of response.

I referred to Storm Éowyn. We all know that storms are getting worse. All the weather records show that. Storm Éowyn is out on its own in terms of the impact on the west of Ireland and I suppose we are all so cognisant of the importance of communications during serious storms like that. Elderly and vulnerable members of the community were left without power but even longer without communications. We will be looking at that issue in the climate committee soon.

In terms of rolling out to community first responders, are they on the list? As the Minister of State will probably be aware, the National Ambulance Service co-ordinates a network of community first responders who are volunteers, who can do CPR, who can do defib and provide other services. It strikes me that they could be a good group to benefit from this in an emergency or a storm situation.

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