Brian Brennan (Wicklow-Wexford, Fine Gael)
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It would be remiss of me to start without thanking my team in Wexford-Wicklow for putting me in this honourable position. I would like to thank my wife, Michelle, and my children, Seán and Mia. I would also like to thank the incredible support I got from my team in north Wexford and south Wicklow. I look forward to representing the constituency right across the board. I have to mention the town of Arklow, because for so long it never had any representation at national level and I will ensure I correct that fact.

Regarding the storm, I ask for a full inquiry into two facts. The first is how so much damage was done. The second is our reaction to the damage. I feel it was very reactive rather than proactive. I know that here is not the time to go through the detail, but I look forward to, I hope, participating in that review. I wholeheartedly congratulate all of those in the ESB and on the front line for the work they have done.

It would be totally remiss of me not to include our farming community in this debate. Yet again, it stood up to the mark, whether that was clearing trees, helping elderly neighbours or bringing food to those who needed it. That community was again the first to put on the green shirt. This is not the first time our farming community has risen to the occasion. With so much going on between succession, derogation, ash dieback and being weighed down with the bureaucracy, we must support this community. It is the heart and soul of the country. It keeps our roads clear, supports other local communities and safeguards our country. When we sit down to speak to farmers, we must keep that in mind. As there is a conveyor belt of young talent leaving the farming community, I ask that we do not forget the past couple of weeks.

Louis O'Hara (Galway East, Sinn Fein)
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Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCathaoirleach Gníomhach agus le gach duine a thug tacaíocht dom agus a chaith vóta dom sa toghchán seo. Déanfaidh mé mo dhícheall a bheith i m'ionadaí láidir. I thank the people of Galway East who have put me here as the first republican TD for the constituency in over a hundred years. I will represent them to the best of my ability.

I want to pay tribute to those involved in responding to the storm, including workers from the ESB, Uisce Éireann, county councils, emergency services, community volunteers and others. Their efforts in an emergency situation are in stark contrast to those of the Government, which only returned to work yesterday when we could have all been in here last week providing much needed clarity to people and working on issues related to the emergency response. Those workers have been working tirelessly to protect us all and restore normality to our communities, often in very dangerous and challenging circumstances. I urge the Government to ensure that they are properly acknowledged and rewarded for their efforts.

This storm has had a devastating impact on County Galway, in particular. Thousands remain without power in their homes. We also have serious water outages, road safety issues and phone and broadband outages. These are all extremely serious and have left people without their basic needs being met. What was most concerning to me over the past two weeks was the lack of care and regard shown to vulnerable members of our community. The vulnerable customers register was thrown out the window and people were only informed that alternative accommodation would be made available on day eight of the aftermath.

Many vulnerable or elderly people are not in a position to leave their homes for various reasons. They have essentially been abandoned, in many cases. Many people in my constituency are still in the dark and cold. Emma Ward, a young wheelchair user from Athenry, is well known as a strong advocate for people with disabilities. She was without electricity for 13 days and only had it restored last night. She is a registered vulnerable customer. She uses an electric wheelchair, but for most of this time she has been unable to use it. She could not access alternative accommodation due to her needs, and, as a result, she was robbed of her independence and left in pain and discomfort. This is an appalling situation and one which is not acceptable.

I appreciate the difficulty of the response, but no matter what we have to look out for the most vulnerable in our community. Emma is not the only one. I have been contacted constantly regarding elderly and vulnerable people who are suffering. A 97-year-old woman was left sleeping on the ground in the dark and cold because she could not use her personal alarm. These people cannot be forgotten about, in particular in times of crisis. Those who are still without power need support now.

We need a review of how the vulnerable customers list is utilised and ensure that, in the event of future storms, priority, generators, accommodation or some other suitable solution for individual people's needs can be provided immediately to everybody on the vulnerable customers register who is affected.

I want to raise a number of other issues in respect of our preparedness and response. Forestry is clearly an issue. Trees must be set back from power lines. It is absolutely critical that we improve our infrastructure and build up our grid, using underground infrastructure where possible. We need to ensure the system is future-proofed and ready to resist future climate challenges. The ESB recorded profits of €860 million in 2023. There is no excuse not to provide for significant investment in infrastructure.

Constantly changing restoration dates and a lack of communication have caused serious issues and meant people could not plan. That must be improved. There must be clear communication in future. Community hubs should be identified and equipped in advance. It was day four, five or six before many were set up. Our councils must be adequately funded to respond to changing demands. Communities and volunteers did their best to step up, but they were not properly supported by the Government.

Backup generators for pump houses are essential. It is mind-boggling that they were not in place in advance. Uisce Éireann must improve its communication. Representations were not responded to, with acknowledgements only being issued after several days. There was an utterly unacceptable situation in my home town of Athenry, whereby there was no water supply to the town or any of the surrounding areas for some time. No water tanker or alternative water supply was provided. Supermarkets had been cleared of water. There was no water to be gotten anywhere in Athenry and the surrounding areas. That affected thousands of people, despite repeated requests to Uisce Éireann. It was an absolutely disgraceful situation.

Phone and broadband outages were hugely concerning. I was contacted by a person who did not know that their mother had ended up in hospital. That is absolutely terrifying. Improvements in infrastructure are badly needed in this area. Some pockets of my constituency are still without these services. This obviously has a significant impact on work and emergencies. Satellite communication must be made available to first responders in the future.

I do not know where to start with the humanitarian assistance scheme. The lack of clarity in respect of the scheme has been absolutely appalling. The accommodation announcement coming eight days in was very unfair to vulnerable people who could move out, but had had to stay home until then. The fact that money had to be paid upfront meant many people were not in a position to access alternative accommodation.

The payments of €100, €150 and €200 made so far are an absolute insult to people left without power for up to two weeks who have spent huge amounts of money on things like food, clothes washing and other expenses. There has not been clarity on what is covered. For example, are generators covered? There has been no clarity for farms and businesses. We urgently need clear, comprehensive guidelines on this scheme and what is and is not covered. It is unacceptable that we have not received that two weeks later. It has left people in really difficult situations who are not receiving what they are entitled to and what they deserve.

It is my firm belief that the response to this crisis would have been so much more urgent if it was not the west of Ireland that was affected. All the stops would have been pulled out if Dublin was left without power, water and communications for up to two weeks. Rural Ireland, and particularly the west, is forgotten by this State. "To hell or to Connacht" - that is what has been said to me countless times over the past couple of weeks by my constituents and I fully agree with them.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Bogfaidh muid ar aghaidh go dtí an chéad sliotán eile ina bhfuil Teachtaí Dála i láthair sa Dáil. Beidh muid ag dul ar ais go dtí sliotán an Rialtais leis an Aire Stáit, an Teachta Micheal Moynihan, ar dtús, agus ansin na Teachtaí Micheál Carrigy agus Eamon Scanlon ina dhiaidh.

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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Areas right throughout the country were seriously affected. Our area was seriously affected from 4 or 5 January by one of the most unprecedented snow storms. In some parts of Duhallow in north Cork, there was between 16 and 20 inches of snow. I compliment the farming community who really rose to the challenge in terms of putting their machinery at the disposal of the community. There was a massive community effort by everybody to try to clear roads. Many houses were cut off for the bones of a week. There was isolation and fear. They were not just without power, but also without water.

ESB crews have worked in hugely difficult circumstances right through from the end of November to the present day on a number of storms. We have to compliment them and compliment the council staff who worked against the clock. We also have to compliment the Army, who were brought in by Cork County Council to work on it.

We have to look at how will we futureproof ourselves against the challenges that lie ahead. A number of futureproofing measures have to be taken. We have to ensure that all sporting clubs, and all utilities in particular, are wired and fit for the adoption of generators straight away because we need to have backup generators in every community. The advice is that these storms will be more frequent and we have to futureproof ourselves. It is hugely important that we take massive lessons from what has been a bruising experience for the vast majority of citizens of this country over the last six or seven weeks.

Some roads have been left in an appalling condition, particularly after the snowstorms. I know the local authorities are working desperately hard to try to repair the roads and on drainage and so forth, but I draw the House's particular concern to the road from Clonbanin to Cullen. Funding was allocated in the latter half of 2024 and contractors have been on site, but because of the amount of snow that fell and the condition of the road, it is in an absolutely dire strait. I understand that contractors are on site at the moment but we need to upgrade that road. The money that has already been committed to it needs to be spent on it because this has been one of the most challenging roads in our area during the last period.

While we pay enormous tribute to all of the people and the communities that came together to help and reach out to their neighbours, and we have to compliment ourselves on the meitheal ideal of supporting each other, we have to put a protocol in place from the Government side to ensure that when these events happen, there is a certain protocol that happens involving local authorities and Government and State agencies and everybody is called to put their shoulder to the wheel immediately when these weather events hit.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Tá brón orm gur dhein mé botún nuair a léigh mé amach an liosta níos luaithe. Glaoim ar an Teachta Keira Keogh anois.

Keira Keogh (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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It is an honour to rise in the Chamber for the first time as a Teachta Dála. I want to express my deep gratitude to the people of Mayo who have put their trust in me and who voted for me. I feel a great responsibility and I commit to working as hard as possible every day to fulfil that responsibility. I also want to briefly thank my team, former Minister, Michael Ring, my friends, Fine Gael members and family who all supported me and worked hard towards my journey here to Leinster House.

Today, I want to talk about the people and communities across the country, especially in the west and north west and my constituents in Mayo, who have had an extremely challenging and distressing fortnight since Storm Éowyn, which, as we know, was an enormous and unprecedented storm. In my county of Mayo, 98% of power was lost, leaving just 600 of 40,000 customers remaining with power. Thankfully, there has been limited loss of life - I really want to extend my sympathies to the family of Kacper Dudek - but farms, homes, businesses and community facilities have been destroyed or left really damaged, with those supporting them counting the costs and bearing the stress. Last weekend, I visited some of those areas and saw the destruction first hand. There has been hurricane-like destruction in places like Burrishoole GAA club, the Connacht Centre of Excellence and farms where sheds and fences have been totally destroyed.

At the forefront of my mind every morning and every night as I have been working extremely hard since the storm has been the elderly people, of a different generation, who do not want to leave their homes. They are very resilient but it has become very cold and it is extremely challenging after a fortnight. Many families of autistic people who rely on routine and assisted technology did not want to take up the offer of alternative accommodation. They have to be kept at the forefront of our mind as we continue to work as hard as we can to ensure power is restored.

The worst of times bring out the best of people. I thank the weather team - the red warning definitely saved lives - the crews on the ground, Uisce Éireann, the almost 3,000 staff with the ESB, Eir, the Air Corps and Civil Defence. The emergency response hubs, of which there were 36 in my county, have been an absolute lifesaver for people where they can charge phones, get Wi-Fi and shower. The staff and volunteers on the ground have been amazing. County council staff and local councillors are working day in, day out. Our farmers have been supporting these efforts by clearing roads, etc.

The humanitarian assistance fund has been helpful and will continue to be helpful but I agree with many of my colleagues that more is needed here. More support will be needed for farms, businesses and homes. Clarity and clearer communication are needed on what is included and how to get it, etc.

There is learning here and we must move forward with learning, especially when we look at the ESB. It is so helpful for people to know why their power is out, how will it be restored and when it will be restored. I know these faults were dynamic but I think we can improve communications as we go forward. We need a really flexible and efficient system to protect our vulnerable people, including elderly people who do not want to leave their homes, those who are cut off from communication, medically vulnerable people and the families of autistic people who rely on routine. We need generators at our water stations, GAA pitches and medical facilities. Our leadership will be measured not only in how we respond to this storm, but also in how we learn and prepare for the storms that are coming down the line.

Micheál Carrigy (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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I rise today for the first time as a Member of Dáil Éireann. I want to take this opportunity to thank the people of Longford for giving me the honour of representing them. I follow in the footsteps of General Seán MacEoin from my own native Ballinalee. I thank my family, the local Fine Gael organisation, my colleagues on Longford County Council, the members, my campaign team and those who have advised me over the last number of years and in recent times. I thank them sincerely for their support and I commit to working tirelessly on their behalf and on the behalf of the people in my constituency over the next five years.

I speak today about the severe impact of the recent storm on County Longford. It has caused widespread destruction and significant hardship for families, businesses and farmers. Indeed, 89% of households and businesses, etc., lost power in the recent storm, one of the highest percentages in the country. I want to take this opportunity to thank the various crews - the ESB crews, the Civil Defence, the family resource centres in Longford, the Longford County Council staff and the Irish Water staff members - that worked tirelessly night and day to bring back services as quickly as possible.

Many businesses and homes have suffered extensive damage and, crucially, some people in my home county are still without power.

I spoke yesterday to a 95-year-old lady who is going into her 13th day without power. A loss of electricity is not just an inconvenience; it has serious consequences for families, for older people and for businesses trying to operate. The financial burden of repairs, spoiled goods and ongoing disruptions is growing by the day.

While the local response has been outstanding and our emergency services have worked tirelessly, this is a situation that requires national urgent intervention. I call on the Government to take immediate action. A compensation scheme must be put in place for all those still without power to ensure they are not left to bear the cost of a situation that is outside of their control. Additionally, the humanitarian assistance scheme must be made available without delay, not just for lower income families but for everyone affected by the storm. Businesses and farmers also need direct support as many have suffered damage to infrastructure vital to their operations. Furthermore, the local authority requires additional funding to repair roads, to clear fallen trees and to restore essential public services. The Department of rural development must ensure flexibility within existing funding schemes to support storm recovery efforts. We are seeing storms of this magnitude more frequently and we must address the immediate crisis. We also need long-term investment in infrastructure and in resilience planning to ensure our communities are better protected in the future. We need to make sure we put generators in place in every single community. We need to see generators at our Irish Water plants. I urge the Government to act swiftly so that the people of Longford receive the support they need without delay. Rural Ireland matters. Longford matters.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Anois, glaoim ar an Teachta Brendan Smith. Tá brón orm nár aithin mé tú níos luaithe.

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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I take this opportunity to compliment all the front-line workers, the ESB and local authority workers, the fire services, the Civil Defence and the many people in our sporting and voluntary organisations who really rose to the challenge of helping people, particularly people who are vulnerable and those who were without power, connectivity or a water supply in their homes. There is a lesson for the ESB at corporate level, at board level, and at chief executive and senior management level regarding what is being done about more and more investment in the grid over the years. I mentioned yesterday - I raised this on plenty of occasions in this House previously - the need to ensure the transmission line corridors are free of obstacles. That has not been done. Forests and plantations have not been maintained to a proper standard. In my county and neighbouring counties, a main source of problems has been falling trees damaging and breaking ESB transmission lines. There has been blanket forestry in place and that is not acceptable. This Government must tackle that by ensuring that there is an even spread of forestry plantations throughout the country and that some communities are not under siege, which is what is happening in some areas due to the growth of more and more forestry plantations. It can be done. There can be an even spread of plantations throughout the country but that must be addressed as urgently as possible.

One thing that always concerns me - it concerned me in the many debates we had here during Covid - is the need for us to ensure we reach the vulnerable and hard-to-reach people. A protocol must be put in place to ensure our statutory agencies- the HSE, our local authorities, An Post or the ESB - work together to ensure there is a knowledge of all people who are vulnerable. I know from engaging with officials at local level there is a reluctance at times to disclose information because of GDPR. I appreciate that but there must be a protocol to ensure that when an emergency arises, the statutory agencies know who may be vulnerable and who needs to be contacted to ensure they are safe and well. That can be addressed at national level. We should not be leaving it until the next storm. We should be addressing those issues now. I want to pay tribute to the people in our statutory agencies who worked extremely hard and to the many sporting and voluntary organisations that are continuing to provide much-needed support to people who unfortunately are still without electricity, water supplies and connectivity in their homes.

Eamon Scanlon (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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As it is my first time to speak in the Thirty-fourth Dáil, I thank my supporters, my canvassers, my wife Anne and my family for the great work they did in the recent general election.

This was the worst storm this country has experienced in living memory; there is no question about that. Were we ready? I do not think we were because it was the worst ever storm I ever experienced anyway. Lessons must be learned from this one. We were not ready. There are many things we need to do. We have to learn from our experiences over the last 15 days. I was speaking to families this morning who are 15 days without electricity. I have spoken to elderly people, vulnerable people and families with young children. I spoke to a lady yesterday who is on her second bout of chemotherapy. The hotel is not an option for them because she has a little girl suffering from autism. This is happening right across the spectrum in south Sligo and Leitrim. There is no question about it.

I acknowledge the work done by the workers. They are out there doing their best but the problem is so vast that we need to get more people. I understand there are 3,000 people in the north-west region hoping to get the power back. It seems to be back everywhere else. On the power check idea, how do you check your power when you have no phone? It cannot be done. Much more needs to be done. The ESB needs to do a lot more to make people aware. I recognise the work done by Ocean FM and Midwest Radio and their help during the crisis, but the message was vague from the ESB. Surely there is somebody who can tell people in a certain area that they will have their electricity back in two, three or four days, or whatever it is. We had people who were told it would be back in two days and then the days were pushed out again and again for another four or five days. That is not fair on people. I do not accept that.

The ESB knows all its vulnerable customers. There is no doubt that this is going to happen again. There is no question about it. We should have a grant scheme for people in vulnerable areas where there are likely to be bad storms and trees falling on lines. A grant should be given to people in such areas to help them to purchase a generator so that they are ready for the next time. People are quite honestly at their wits' end. They are very annoyed and I can genuinely feel their pain when speaking to them. They are totally and absolutely distressed with what has happened. An independent body like the Department of agriculture - not Coillte or the private foresters - should do a survey. If the lines are running through a forest, a survey should be done to check that there is sufficient space to ensure that if a tree falls, it is not going to fall down on an electric cable. That needs to be done and it is not a difficult job to do. We know where the lines are and we know where they are going over the forest. If there is an issue and it is possible that trees are going to fall on lines again, those trees should be cut down now, and not after they fall on a line.

Another issue that was raised relates to community welfare officers. Some years ago, those officers were taken out of the community and put into the centre of a town, in our case Sligo. Community welfare officers would be better out in their local communities where people can access them. Everybody thinks everybody has a car. They do not all have a car and they are depending on neighbours to get into the local town to go to meet a community welfare officer. A lot needs to be done from that point of view, particularly in a crisis, so that people can easily contact a community welfare officer and speak to him or her.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Bogaimid ar aghaidh go dtí sliotán Shinn Féin agus an Teachta Louise O'Reilly agus ansin an Teachta Ruairí Ó Murchú.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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I am sharing time, four and three and a half minutes. I really enjoy listening to members of the Government throwing their hands up in the air and saying "God, if only someone had done something". Indeed, there are more lessons to be learned and we see more new pupils sitting opposite us. Let us hope lessons are learned. They certainly have not been up until now. The leaders in the Government may listen to what their own backbenchers have been saying, although previous experience would not give me much hope of that.

I want to pay tribute to the men and women who have been on the front line of dealing with the aftermath of Storm Éowyn; namely, the council workers, the emergency services, the ESB, Uisce Éireann workers and healthcare workers delivering care in absolutely appalling circumstances.

10 o’clock

A special word of thanks goes to those volunteers who manned and womanned the community hubs and to those who opened their hotels, bed and breakfasts, coffee shops and other businesses to help their neighbours in need.

My mentor and very good friend Patricia King used to talk about the threshold of decency. It is the job of a functioning society and, in particular, the Department of Social Protection to be that safety net. This is now the question the Government needs to ask itself to allow it to evaluate its response. When the chips were down and people sought help, did they get help or did they get a list of excuses and a comprehensive explanation of why they had to wait? For most of the hundreds of thousands of people impacted, the immediate issue has been resolved. For thousands, however, the nightmare continues. This is in the here and now. In truth, though, the reverberations of this will be felt, particularly in the west of Ireland, for years to come. When members of the Opposition, such as TDs like my colleague Deputy Claire Kerrane, make practical suggestions, these should be acted on. We saw the Department of Education provide support for generators for schools but nobody thought of crèches. Please, make that make sense. Parents cannot go to work. They are having to use up their annual leave. I have spoken to parents whose annual leave is now going to be depleted. That is it now until Christmas for them because they have used their leave to care for their kids. This is because nobody had the foresight to think that kids in schools would need generators but so would kids in crèches. Why not? Please, please do make this make sense. Likewise, when supports are structured in a way that means they must be claimed back rather than paid upfront, what does this say to people who do not have the money upfront?

I was very struck by the words of a young woman who lives in Athenry. Emma is a student, a journalist, a campaigner and a wheelchair user. She told me she never felt so forgotten in her life. The power outage meant she could not charge her powered wheelchair. Emma explained that the powered chair is comfortable and safe for her because it gives her body the support she needs. Without it, she is in constant discomfort. Added to this is the additional pain caused to her poor bones by the cold. This means she had to leave her family home to go to relatives, where there might not be as much accessibility as she has at home. She could not go to college. Her whole life depends on her being able to access power. As I said, there is a threshold of decency, a minimum standard that it is the duty of the State to uphold. I do not think this happened in Emma's case. I do not think the threshold of decency was upheld. Emma's power came back yesterday, thankfully, but the feeling of being forgotten will stay with her for a very long time. Emma says she does not believe enough was done for vulnerable people to prepare for this storm and its impact. The minimum threshold of decency should be upheld. When the Government falls below this threshold, it should rightly accept responsibility, apologise to those it let down and show us with its actions that it has learned. It is not surprising that none of this has happened but it is, nonetheless, shameful.

Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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I have to agree with Deputy O'Reilly. I do not know how many times we have come in here and heard about learnings and that lessons will be learned. We all accept this storm was what we now say was a "once in a lifetime" event, although they seem to be happening a hell of a lot more frequently than they did previously. I think we can accept we will be dealing with more situations and circumstances like this in future. It is not like we were unaware we were going to have this circumstance. There are things that could have been put in place previously and preparations that could have been made.

A new term we have decided we are going to talk about is "resilience building" and that we are going to check in relation to our capacity, but we must actually do this. I commend the huge amount of work done by people in Uisce Éireann, the local authorities, the ESB and the foreign teams that have come in to help to restore electricity. A huge body of work has been done. Anybody who has witnessed any of it or seen people literally going in for some food and then back out at ridiculous times of the night, and all the rest of it, will realise they are actually doing everything. The fact is that we are dealing with some of the capacity issues we have all known about for a long time. I also add that all our feelings are with the family of Kacper Dudek. This reminds me of the case of Fintan Goss, who tragically lost his life in 2017 during Storm Ophelia. We all know the dangers these circumstances cause. We have all been contacted by families that have been in dreadful sets of circumstances. Even though a large part of my county did not suffer the same as some neighbouring counties and, obviously, parts of the west, there are still people who do not have electricity or water now. We know people are very reliant on electricity these days. Many have electricity-fed water systems. This creates its own difficulties.

We all know that, as per normal, the community voluntary sector groups, including the GAA and others, all stepped up to the mark. This must be welcomed. We have all welcomed the humanitarian assistance scheme, but we have had major issues in respect of the flexibilities that need to be put into the scheme and the fact that there has been a lack of clarity. I agree with many of my colleagues that we could have been here at an earlier stage when we could have brought up these issues and brought this to a conclusion. I raise a specific issue in my constituency concerning a water system in Hackballscross. It is a pump system that has always had difficulties. It is the end of the line. Not only were the monitoring system and pumping station knocked out, but even when water was resupplied and the power came back to a degree there were issues with airlocking and whatever. This is an issue that has been ongoing for a long time and it needs to be addressed. Like many other issues, whether we are talking about forestry, the resilience of the grid or that we have not anywhere next to near what is needed in relation to renewables or any of this, we have an opportunity now to take a look at where we have failed and to see where we can do better. This must be done.

Rory Hearne (Dublin North-West, Social Democrats)
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I thank the ESB, councils, communities and individuals for the work they have done and the support they have shown to each other. Again, as we saw during Covid, ordinary people and communities in this country showed the way forward while the Government followed behind, very delayed and inadequately. The Government failed to take a serious emergency response to this storm, just like it failed to take an emergency response to the housing crisis. It is important to highlight that it was not just in rural areas that people lost their electricity. People in Glasnevin and Santry in my constituency, including vulnerable adults and families, were without power where trees fell on electricity lines and caused power outages for several days. Clearly, this was not on the scale of what happened in rural counties but significant distress was experienced. Local residents' associations, such as the Wadelai-Hillcrest and District Residents Association, provided great support. People also contacted me.

It is important we come back again to the point regarding the Government seriously acknowledging that its response was really a botched one to this absolute emergency. The Government needs to plan better. Indeed, its own Minister agreed to this on RTÉ last week when it was said the Government does need to plan better and it should have had the emergency hubs in place long before this storm. I think the Government was distracted in its response by the mess it created in its stroke with its new partners in the regional Independents and trying to cover up that storm instead of actually responding to the real storm that needed an emergency response. Vulnerable people I know in the west of Ireland who were supposed to be contacted by the HSE were not contacted. We need better responses from our State.

We also need to acknowledge that this is climate change and this is the climate emergency. Storm Éowyn broke wind speed records. The highest wind speeds since records began were recorded in County Galway. The figures out today from the European Union's climate research agency show that January was the warmest month globally. Global warming increases the likelihood and intensity of extreme weather events. My question for the Government is where is the preparation for the next storm.

We have had snow and wind. What preparation is in place so that we are not scrambling as we were in the response to this storm in all the areas?

Short- and long-term measures are required. One medium-term measure, although it could also be taken in the short term, is the way in which we could support people to be resilient when these emergency storms happen. One area is the roll-out of renewable energy on an individual basis for a house or apartment block on a block-by-block basis. We know that there are ways in which solar energy and solar panels can be supported to provide electricity to an individual home. The question is why this is not being done more. In particular, why is it not being done in places that are more vulnerable to storms so that in future people will have their own independent electricity supply, which does not rely on having a car that might plug in? The provision of renewable energy in homes is an area that the Government has acknowledged is a win-win. It provides cheaper electricity. It also enables homes to reduce their carbon emissions. The problem is only some people can afford to invest in renewable energy and in solar panels on their homes. Most people cannot do so. They do not have any money to put into investment in their homes. We can see this in the cost-of-living crisis. Where is the expediting of the roll-out of solar panels on everybody's home? Where will the State ensure that everybody can access renewable energy?

The other area is the issue of local authorities. This comes under my brief of housing and local government. Local authorities responded. A number of them worked very hard to respond. They set up co-ordination groups and emergency nodes to respond to the storm. As we all know in this House, the issue is that local authorities are completely underfunded. They are stretched in the resources they have. The people in them are working as hard as they can but they lack resources and funding. Why is this? This is again a question. It is the result of decades of underfunding by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael governments, which failed to develop a strong, empowered, local State. Instead, it has been 40 years of privatisation, outsourcing and underfunding of our local authorities.

I will give one small example that is very pertinent, which is the issue of trees. Tree maintenance is a responsibility of our local authorities, yet week after week we get complaints from the public about the inadequate maintenance of trees. That is not asking for trees to be chopped down but, rather, asking for them to be pruned and maintained properly. If trees were maintained properly, we could avoid situations such as trees knocking down electricity lines. One constituent sent a photograph to me during the storm of one tree completely lying over and pulling up the pavement. This is a lack of maintenance by local authorities. When we ask them when they will do this maintenance, they give us a huge extended timeline. The issue is they have outsourced it. They have outsourced it to private companies because local authorities do not have the capacity themselves. My question to the Government is when will we develop a properly resourced and properly funded local authority system in this country that actually has the capacity to respond to snow and wind, and to maintain our trees and public infrastructure? This is all part of emergency responses and emergency planning.

I again thank the ESB, local authorities and local community organisations that worked so hard to support people and continue to work and support people. I reiterate that this Government failed in its first test of being able to act in its position as the Government. It is to be hoped that we will not see a repeat of this and will see emergency responses, a sense of urgency regarding this storm and the other emergencies we face, especially the housing crisis.

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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I dtosach, is mian liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil le gach duine a thug cabhair do na pobail timpeall na tíre. In that context, I acknowledge and thank everybody associated with the emergency services, including the ESB, the telecoms operators and all the volunteers who helped during what was a totally unprecedented event.

With regard to communications, the estimated effect of the storm on the national telecoms user base was the largest ever recorded in history. As of 10 o'clock on Tuesday, 0.79% of fixed service users are without services, which is down from a peak of 10% on 25 January. Of mobile service users, 2% are experiencing some level of degradation of service, down from a peak of almost 35%, or 2 million users, on 24 January. In response to the storm, we are inviting the main telecom CEOs to a meeting as soon as possible to discuss the learnings from the storm and how to improve the resilience of their telephone networks. We will also meet the telecom regulator, ComReg, to gain its insights on how the storm emergency was managed and how the network can be made more resilient into the future. All the operators are being asked to contribute commitments and actions to the State's sectoral adaptation plan for communications, which will build further resilience across all of our networks. The plan will be drafted by the summer and finalised by the autumn. I will be pleased to come to the House at any stage on that.

Work is well under way to introduce legislation to regulate minimum standards for resilience risk and incident management of entities decided within the physical space under the supervision of the national competent authorities, NCAs. The EU networks and information systems directive, NIS2, is planned to be enacted this year. The EU critical entities resilience directive was introduced last year. Repair and restoration work has returned normal services to most customers. Several fixed service operators have also returned to normal service operation levels. However, I am conscious of the fact that is not the case for everybody. Many areas in the north and north-west of the country continue to be affected by outages, which have been caused by the extensive damage to infrastructure in rural areas, predominantly due to forestry.

Restoration of full services has been hampered by the complexity of the repairs required to restore damaged infrastructure. Telecoms operators continue to engage with ComReg and report outages across their networks. They have mobilised all available resources towards further restoration of services. I can say to the House that no resources are being withheld from this. Full restoration may take more time in the areas most damaged. While the restoration of electrical power remains an issue at present, when power is restored, repairs to overhead copper lines and fibre en masse has to then begin. There are limitations to the speed at which operators can repair, such as resources, including the number of trained personnel and parts required; impaired access due to the effects of the storm, for instance, fallen trees and fallen power lines; assurance of safe access for repair personnel; trafficability of land in wintertime due to the heavy rain, particularly repair of base stations; and overhead copper and fibre where routed over land. The restoration of electrical power has also impacted on mechanical repairs.

At its peak, more than 60,000 National Broadband Ireland customers were without service. Some 49,000 have now been restored. The top six counties continuing to be impacted account for approximately 65% of the remaining customers without service. These are Galway, Roscommon, Cavan, Longford, Monaghan and Mayo. NBI customers experiencing outages can report these to their service providers. Areas throughout the country that remain most affected are, by operator, Three in counties Galway, Mayo and Roscommon; Eir in counties Galway, Mayo, Roscommon, Donegal, Leitrim, Cavan and Westmeath; Eir's fixed service in counties Galway, Offaly, Mayo, Roscommon and Louth; and Vodafone in all of the north-west region. Virgin has indicated a return to business as usual.

I will turn to my other brief with regard to sports facilities. The damage to sporting facilities throughout the country, including the Connacht GAA Air Dome, is a massive blow to sporting organisations and local communities. However, I will put on the record of the House the importance of the sports capital scheme that was used for many communities across the country in terms of resilience. Without the sports amenities we have throughout the country, we would not have been able to have a lot of the local hubs. I also note that for sporting facilities that are damaged, commercial insurance is the first port of call in the restoration of such facilities back to sporting use. Adequate insurance for facilities is a condition of sports capital funding granted by our Department under either of its funding schemes, which are the sports facilities fund and the large scale infrastructure fund.

During previous extreme weather emergencies such as Storm Babet in the autumn of 2023, the Government introduced an emergency relief scheme for community, voluntary and sporting bodies, administered by the Red Cross. Whether such a model is followed this time will be a matter for discussion and will be decided by the Government as a whole. I have asked Sport Ireland to engage with all of the local sports partnerships in the worst-affected counties to collate any additional information on the damage that has been caused which may or may not be within the scope of insurance companies and report to my Department as soon as possible. When this is done I intend to bring a report back to Government on the scale and the financial ask from the Department's sports capital funding envelope and to make sure, if possible, that these costs can be met.

Again, I thank all of those workers, particularly those in the communications sector, who have worked so hard to restore service to so many people across the country.

Martin Daly (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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As a newly elected TD and a republican, I thank the people of Roscommon-Galway for placing their trust in me. It is an incredible honour and I take this responsibility seriously. I thank my family, friends and campaigners for their support. I rise today to speak on behalf of my constituents in Roscommon-Galway who are deeply frustrated and upset in the aftermath of Storm Éowyn. The storm resulted in a blanket loss of power, water and communications. Families were left without heat, unable to contact emergency services and were cut off from the basic necessities. The most vulnerable in our communities, older people, the sick, and isolated rural residents have suffered the most. Businesses and farmers have been devastated. Many are still without power and their frustration is justified. It is our responsibility to ensure that their concerns are not just heard but are acted upon.

At the same time, I acknowledge those on the ground: community volunteers; the remarkable farming community who cleared trees from the roads before anyone else was even moving; ESB crews and their international teams; local authority workers; community and primary care teams; and the emergency hubs. Their dedication is commendable. However, Storm Éowyn has exposed systemic weaknesses that must be addressed. We have seen a lack of consistency in how local authorities, Intreo offices and community welfare officers responded. In spite of clear direction from An Taoiseach for maximum flexibility in dealing with distressed citizens, constituents have had vastly different experiences, leading to confusion and delays. Emergency responses must be uniform, efficient and proactive. ESB Networks corporate must also provide answers. In a meeting last week with its senior management team I specifically asked about its risk management and infrastructure audit protocols but could get no answers. Answers are needed. Forestry and tree husbandry seem, on the face of it, to have been neglected by ESB Networks management. Approximately 80% of the outages were as a result of fallen trees. We need an urgent audit of tree lines near power infrastructure, and forestry corridors established in the national interest. We need transparency, investment in infrastructure and a clear plan to prevent a repeat of this crisis.

Water supply resilience was also a major concern. Uisce Éireann and our group water schemes must be generator-ready. Too many communities were left without access to life-supporting clean water. This cannot happen again. Healthcare services were also severely impacted, particularly GP clinics whose network is the backbone of health services throughout the country. While hospitals have back-up generators, GP surgeries were left without power and telecommunications. This is unacceptable. The HSE must conduct a full audit and ensure that GP clinics have robust power, water and telecommunications systems and backups.

I am calling for the establishment of inter-agency task force to ensure proper emergency planning across all State bodies. The people of Roscommon-Galway and communities across the country deserve not just words but action. Let us make sure that the devastation caused by Storm Éowyn leads to real, meaningful change.

Albert Dolan (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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Storm Éowyn was one of the most brutal storms to hit Ireland in living memory. In Galway we saw wind speeds of up to 183 km/h tearing down trees, damaging homes and leaving thousands without power and water. Families were left in freezing houses, businesses were forced to close and farmers struggled to keep operations running. It was a devastating event and for many the hardship went on for days.

In the face of this destruction, we also saw incredible dedication from those working on the front lines of the response. I want to take a moment to sincerely thank the staff of ESB Networks, Irish Water, our local councils, farmers and community groups that responded. These workers braved treacherous conditions to restore power, reconnect water supplies and clear roads, often working long hours in difficult circumstances. Their efforts ensured that services were brought back as quickly as possible and for that we owe them gratitude.

One of the biggest vulnerabilities we saw in our water supply was in the mid-Galway water scheme which serves over 8,000 people who were without water for six days because there was no back-up power. This is not sustainable. We need to ensure that Irish Water has the resources to install back-up generators for key water schemes so that critical services are protected when the next storm comes. Our electricity network was also severely impacted. ESB Networks worked around the clock to restore power but the scale of outages showed how exposed our grid remains. A major issue was fallen trees bringing down power lines. One simple, practical step we can take is to allow ESB Networks to carry out essential tree-cutting along power lines during the summer months when conditions are safest. This is a common-sense measure that will help to prevent widespread outages in the future.

Galway and the west have always been resilient but resilience is not a strategy. We need real investment in our infrastructure, stronger power networks, more secure water supplies and proper support for those impacted. Storm Éowyn must be a turning point. The next storm will come but we have the power to ensure that we are better prepared. Let us act now.

Cathy Bennett (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Is onóir mhór í dom labhairt anseo mar Theachta Dála ar an Chabhán agus Muineachán. I am proud to stand here today for the first time as an elected representative of the people of Cavan and Monaghan. Mine is the same constituency that returned hunger striker Kieran Doherty in 1981 and in 1997 returned my friend and colleague, Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, as the first Sinn Féin TD in more than a generation. This same constituency has now returned its strongest Sinn Féin Oireachtas team in living memory which I am honoured to be part of alongside my colleagues Matt Carthy and Pauline Tully. Gabhaim buíochas le mo chlann, le mo chomrádaithe anseo agus le gach duine a thacaigh liom le vóta agus cúnamh. I thank my party colleagues, my family, those who voted for me and all who helped over the course of the campaign.

Storm Éowyn inflicted devastation across this island. While such severe weather events are undeniably becoming more common, there is a feeling among people, especially in rural Ireland, that the devastation was compounded by poor planning. It is hard to dismiss such feelings given the extended period for which many people, including in my own constituency of Cavan-Monaghan, were left without basic utilities such as electricity and water and also because for many, this was not a once-in-a-decade or even a once-in-a year event. Many had experienced similar disruption weeks earlier during Storm Darragh.

Last week I had the opportunity, alongside the Sinn Féin leader, Mary Lou McDonald, to meet those at the coalface who were responding to the storm. We met front-line workers and people in community hubs who were seeking to redress the undue hardship borne by ordinary families and workers. It is them I thank today for responding to what arose from what I can only attribute to poor planning and underinvestment in infrastructure.

I wish to raise two general matters which I am not certain have been addressed as yet and I appeal to the Minister to address them in his closing remarks. The first relates to people who, because they were unable to use the Internet or could not access it, were unable to log on to submit their jobseeker's declaration.

As a result, they have missed out on the social welfare payments for this week that they were entitled to. Will the Minister outline how these payments are going to be recouped? Second, the lack of access to clean drinking water and electricity has had real public health implications in terms of disease being exacerbated, negative mental health implications and nutrition, to name but some. Will the Minister speak to the Government public health response to the storm?

While the ESB and others continue to work to restore power to those still without electricity and water, it is our responsibility now to look to the medium and the long term. How is it that at its peak, upwards of 768,000 ESB customers were without electricity? How was it that such a considerable number of people were without running water? Why is it that people in rural Ireland, like Cavan and Monaghan, are so often expected to endure substandard service levels for critical infrastructure? The terrain may be rougher, the bedrock may be tougher and the population lower than most urban areas, but the scale of the impact does not fully explain the burden my constituents have been forced to bear. To me the answer is clear: a long-standing dearth of investment in critical infrastructure in rural Ireland by successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael governments and a lack of urgency to mitigate the worst impacts of that underinvestment.

To my mind, the key question we must now answer is how we redress these deficiencies. If such severe weather events are to be more common, I ask the Government to do its job and begin today to put in place the measures necessary to ensure that next year, in three years, in five years, and in a decade from now, people from rural counties like Cavan and Monaghan do not decry the Government as simply yet one more that has failed to implement these necessary actions.

I ask the Government to carry out a risk assessment now to prepare for future storms, involving the commissioning of an examination of what existing overground infrastructure can feasibly be put underground in the short, medium and long term, and that would involve EirGrid in particular taking note that newly proposed infrastructure needs to be underground; identifying the scale and scope of emergency generators needed to be at the ready, especially regarding water infrastructure; identifying to what extent battery storage and other resources are capable when required; and considering the extent to which poor planning in terms of trees and forestry compounded the storm's impact. I ask the Government to reflect on the impact of its anti-rural policies, its anti-car policies without sufficiently improving public transport, the carbon tax that increases the price of petrol and diesel irrespective of whether a person can afford a new car or whether sufficient charging infrastructure exists, the Government's ban on turf and much more. I ask the Government to reflect on its policies when it is so patently clear that those in government have not lived up to their end of the bargain and their obligations to deliver the necessary infrastructure to mitigate unreliability.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Thankfully, much of Dublin escaped the worst ravages of Storm Éowyn but I know that, across the country, tens of thousands of people suffered extreme hardship as a result of water and power outages. The lack of resilience of our key infrastructure in those areas of water and power exposed extreme vulnerabilities in our ability to respond to emergency situations. Some, including some in this House, who scoffed at weather warnings before the storm should, quite honestly, hang their heads in shame. We obviously need to do an emergency audit of our electricity grid and our water infrastructure to make sure they are going to be weather resilient. The destruction wreaked on forests should prompt us once again to think about the monoculture model of forestry in this country because monocultures of Sitka spruce, planted in straight lines, are much more vulnerable to being knocked over during storms. They also make flooding worse.

We need a system like Scotland's to get emergency payments to people. In Scotland, rather than people having to go through the rigmarole of the community welfare officer, emergency payments are sent directly to people as soon as they are impacted by severe weather events. We need to think again about the outsourcing of much of the ESB's and Irish Water's work to contractors that robs them of the direct capacity to do a lot of the jobs. Workers in the ESB went on strike a few years ago precisely because of the contracting out of their work, which lessened their capacity to respond to emergencies like this.

This also highlights our ability to deal with all sorts of emergencies. Last week, workers from the National Ambulance Service came to me and I was shocked when they told me that in Scotland, which has the same population as Ireland, there are 6,196 people working in the ambulance service, whereas in Ireland, we have 2,321, less than half of what they have in Scotland. Our ambulance service, a key emergency service, is an instance of an area where we are massively understaffed and underresourced. We need to get those resources in place.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Comhghairdeachas leis an Aire Stáit nua. Guím gach rath air ina ról nua. I welcome the short amount of time I have to speak on this. It goes without saying that I fully appreciate the work of all the workers on the ground. I will use my time to highlight what has been brought to my attention. I have a file here with a range of human experiences. There are 13,000 households still without power as I stand here today. Quite a lot of those are in Galway county and some in the city. I have a letter here that was sent to the Taoiseach and all the TDs in Galway. I am not going to read it out but it is from a doctor in which she sets out in seven paragraphs under the headings communication, health, electricity, water, business, community hubs and the Government's role. I could not put it any better and I do not think any Minister could put it better. I advise everyone to read that. It contains practical suggestions and absolute dismay at there being no proactive work on the issues.

As a human being and as a mother, I cannot identify with a Government that allows somebody who relies on a hoist and electricity to get into a bed and they cannot. They had nobody to call. That is exactly what happened in one case. I will come off the anecdotes because, although the storm was unprecedented, the Government had plenty of warning of what we needed to do. We have a climate advisory council, which quite helpfully does a report every year. There are seven key recommendations and there are key observations. I did not hear any Minister or the Taoiseach discuss the lack of action on those key recommendations and observations in every area.

Separately, there is a subcommittee that Professor Peter Thorne sits on. He dismisses the excuse that this was an unprecedented moment because, in a reasonable, worst-case scenario, this should have been anticipated. He goes on to give examples of how that should have been done.

I was at a presentation on infrastructure and the lack of it in Galway city last week. Top of the list were flood defences, the cost of which has gone from an estimate of €9 million to €15 million and rising. It is top of the list but no further development is possible without doing this.

The storm might have been unprecedented but we also failed to act on previous storms. During 2023 alone, we had 11 named storms.

The trend in 2024 was the same. The ferocity of this storm was worse but we knew about it in advance. We need to take action to make our infrastructure resilient, and we have utterly failed.

Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Independent)
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Last month, Storm Éowyn rampaged across our country, causing havoc in its wake. Our power grid was crippled, with smaller communities especially devastated and left without power for weeks on end. Despite the best efforts of ESB Networks and international volunteers, getting repairs done quickly proved a challenge. I thank everyone on the front line for their work, but nationally this is another wake-up call and successive governments have been asleep at the wheel for more than a decade. Judging by the final Sinn Féin contribution to this debate, it looks like its members are supporters of Trump - drill, baby, drill and keep the carbon coming - with no solution there either.

We knew the climate was changing. Last month was the warmest January ever, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service, despite the cooling influence of La Niña. We have now shifted to the next level of instability and it is only going to get worse until global leaders work collectively to avoid the worst-case scenario. That means us too. This storm broke wind speed records at four stations and reached hurricane force at two stations. It is not a once-in-a-lifetime storm risk anymore. If the Government is lucky, it will be a storm that happens once in the lifetime of the Government. It is going to happen again soon and preparations need to be made now, not just for inevitable emergency responses but on the grid itself. We cannot afford massive undergrounding but we need to make our network resilient. We need localised electricity grids that can be connected to central and regional plants. In the programme for Government, however, there are very few tangible plans, just a few vague lines. We need to be explicit and time-based. Rural Ireland, in particular, has massive potential for microgeneration, self-sufficient storage and sharing inter-regional grid hubs, but we need to plan the system in a different way.

I acknowledge there has been more discussion about the water services network but, again, we have no tangible plan for action. We have to wake up and smell the coffee. We are past the point of no return. We cannot have further statements like this in another two or three years and say the same spiel again.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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The response of this Government to the storm is absolutely shocking. It took a full 12 days for this Dáil to meet after the storm. That shows how far removed the Government is from the needs of the people. The fact that not even a senior Minister has turned up for this debate is also shocking. In a parliamentary question I submitted to the Minister for energy a couple of days ago, I asked how many staff at the ESB are employed to reconnect homes, in response to which he stated he has no responsibility for that question. That is incredible. The Minister for energy has no responsibility for the reconnection of family homes to the energy system.

Today marks two weeks since Storm Éowyn and 13,000 homes are still without electricity. If we look at a map of where those homes are, we will see they are in the west and the midlands, areas that have been forgotten by this country. Sixty per cent of the Ministers of this Government are based in the greater Dublin area. There is one Minister from throughout Connacht and Ulster. There is a direct correlation between this Government's focus, in terms of ministerial power, and the lack of actual power in people's homes.

The Government is going to go ahead and build the North-South interconnector, which will put 90 m-high pylons across high land in the midlands. The Government is spending hundreds of millions of euro on a project that will be blown down in future. I ask it to refrain from that project.

Michael Collins (Cork South-West, Independent Ireland Party)
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I extend my sincere gratitude to the Irish and international workers for their tremendous efforts to date. I am fully aware of the hardships faced by many, especially in the west and parts of the midlands. I happened to be in Whitehall and Castlebrock, Longford, over the weekend and witnessed the extensive damage at first hand, with trees lying across roads and houses with large trees having fallen against them, broadband boxes hanging off poles and wires strewn everywhere. The response from the Government was appallingly slow, particularly for the most vulnerable, including our elderly, sick and farming community. Action must now take place to cut back trees to 30 m from roadsides and power lines to prevent future incidents that will end lives. Trees can be sown inside lands in future.

There are still people without electricity, hot food, water and other basic essentials. Ireland is not a Third World country, but the way we reacted to this storm made us look like one. An 8 kVA generator is sufficient to power an average house in the event of a power outage. Such a generator would cost approximately €1,500 and the cost of wiring the house with a changeover switch would be about €1,000. Grants should be made available to all ESB customers in rural Ireland to enable them to have standby generators. These grants can come from the massive profits the ESB makes from its customers.

Questions also need asking of Uisce Éireann. I am reliably informed it has no generator in its water or wastewater treatment plants to be used if the storm had taken Cork harder than it did. Inniscarra could have lost power, thus closing thousands of jobs, so to speak, and affecting hospitals and everyone else on the Inniscarra line. This is the same for water and wastewater treatment plants in Cork county. As far as I am aware, there is not even a changeover switch in any of these plants. This, when the agency has specific employees paid to oversee generators in these plants, is unacceptable.

Jerry Buttimer (Cork South-Central, Fine Gael)
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The breadth of the contributions by Members of the House today and yesterday speaks to the scale of the impact of Storm Éowyn. It was, as Deputy Gogarty said, a hurricane-type event, with winds of 180 km/h, which illustrates the severity. We can see the impact it is having on families and communities, throughout the west and north west in particular, and every one of us regrets its impact and the suffering and hardship it has caused to people. As Members will have noted, the work of the National Emergency Co-ordination Group, in proclaiming a red weather warning, helped saved lives during the storm, and I join other Members in extending my sympathies to the family of Kacper Dudek.

I thank the Members of the House for their contributions today and yesterday. It is our duty to reflect on the stories we have heard, the lived experiences and the real hardship of people - ghnáthdhaoine, muintir na tíre. Families and communities were devastated, waiting to be reconnected. I have spoken to people who have been affected by the storm and are still without power in some cases. My good friend, Councillor Gerry Coyle, spoke to the frustration, this morning on "Morning Ireland" and on the phone to me over recent days, spoke to the frustration, and Deputy Conway-Walsh spoke likewise yesterday. If we do nothing else, we must learn, look at the shortcomings and see how we can make things better, in a non-political way. The Taoiseach was right yesterday, on the Order of Business, when he said we need to have a fundamental rethink about storm resilience. Members in their contributions have given a lot of good information, which I hope will be used in the response to the storm.

As Minister of State at the Department of community development, I thank the community and voluntary groups and others who work so tirelessly with our local government officials to provide basic services for those in need. The meitheal in our country still works. We have seen time and again the power of community and of the spirit of the people, and when it is challenged, our people rise. The difficulties, from Covid to the various storms, have brought the best out of our people, and I thank them. The voluntary ethos expressed by so many in this House and the well-developed volunteer infrastructure in our country are extraordinary.

Deputies Brian Brennan and Martin Daly mentioned our farming community. Our farmers are unsung heroes in our rural communities and we thank them for the support and help they gave to so many of their neighbours. Equally, our volunteer centres and the volunteers in our communities have worked to make life better for people in the worst affected counties. A key priority for me, as the new Minister of State, will be to engage with affected communities who continue to be impacted by the challenge on foot of the storm. Members can be assured of my commitment to visiting and speaking to communities and of the Department's continuing support for communities throughout the country over the coming weeks and months.

Whether that is, as Members said, about the use of generators, the role of generators in pump stations, community hubs, community centres and sporting grounds, let us not be afraid to tackle and change how we do business. Deputy O'Reilly mentioned childcare and crèches. Let it be put on record so that it should never be forgotten.

In terms of the community response, Members should recognise that many of the community spaces and emergency response hubs provided are facilities funded by Government through CLÁR, the community investment fund, LEADER and the local enhancement programme. Imagine if we did not have that money to put into infrastructure in our communities. The last week has demonstrated the importance of the SICAP programme, which supports the most vulnerable people and their families in our country. SICAP is a flexible programme where funding is targeted to those most in need in their communities. The various groups implementing SICAP have contributed to the State response to the storm. Some 380 hubs were in operation last week. Today, around 330 remain in operation, supporting those people who still require and need supports. They will be kept in place for as long as needed. The continued investment by the Department under various schemes will serve to ensure a robust and enhanced network of community facilities continues to be put in place. The debate over the past two days illustrates the importance of reflecting upon what did not work so well. I acknowledge that Government will learn from the response, take on board some of the views expressed today and work with Members to ensure our response in the future will override the difficulties we have seen, such as the issues of the resilience of our infrastructure, availability and prioritisation of equipment such as generators, and forward planning for the provision of emergency hubs in advance of future extreme events.

I bhfianaise na cúraimí atá ar mo Roinn nua, táim airdeallach go raibh pobail leochaileacha agus iargúlta, iad siúd atá lonnaithe ar na hoileáin agus sna Gaeltachtaí san áireamh, i measc na ceantair ba mheasa a bhí buailte ag an stoirm. Is féidir liom geallúint a thabhairt do na pobail sin go rabhamar airdeallach orthu riamh, le linn agus i ndiaidh na stoirme, agus go bhfuilimid tiomanta cinntiú go mbeidh ar chumas na pobail sin déileáil le heachtraí den saghas sin.

On supports, we heard over the past number of days, details of the humanitarian assistance put in place. I remind Members that the Minister, Deputy Calleary

On supports, we heard over recent days details of the humanitarian assistance put in place. I remind Members that the Minister, Deputy Calleary, activated a scheme on Thursday, 23 January in advance of the storm's arrival. It continues to be available to members of the public to provide support to those living in properties directly affected by the storm. I take on board the views of Members of all sides on the need for clarity and clearer communications, which I will bring back to the Department. The community welfare service in the Department of Social Protection administers the humanitarian assistance, and community welfare officers and services have been working with 14 local co-ordination groups throughout the country, visiting people in their homes where necessary to provide support. The community welfare service is and has been engaged and will continue to be so. The Department of Social Protection has to date issued 3,818 stage 1 payments, totalling €727,792, to people who at the time the application was approved did not have any power or water supply due to the storm.

I ask Deputy Bennett to provide details of the people whose cases she raised because it is a pertinent point. If you cannot get access to the Internet to submit you details, you should not be penalised given the situation. I would be happy to talk to her about that. Her point is a good one, that there should be flexibility in that regard. I remind all Members that the Department of Social Protection's humanitarian assistance scheme remains open for those who require support and information.

I again thank all of the emergency services, local authority workers, ESB international and local crews and volunteers involved in helping with the recovery, while acknowledging the length of time some people have been affected is far longer that we hoped. You cannot talk out of both sides of your mouth. You cannot talk about climate change, be for and then be against. We have to be real. In some cases, people are not. I again thank Members for their contributions. It incumbent on us that we learn, and it is important we ensure more resilient communities for the future.

In the context of what the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Moynihan, said regarding the Clonbanin road, I am very familiar with it; it is in County Cork. It is in real need of upgrading. The project is one we should see concluded.

The chief executive of the ESB's remarks were inappropriate at a time when people are looking for leadership from him as CEO of the ESB. I think he should reflect on what he said.

Deputy Smith's contribution on transmission line corridors is one we should all take on board.