Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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87. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if he will outline the engagement there has been with ESB Networks and other relevant State agencies on the issue of building resilience into the electricity grid, post Storm Éowyn; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6004/25]

Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Unfortunately, it sounds like we have the correct weather for the sort of question I am going to ask. A huge number of people were impacted by the recent Storm Éowyn. Huge damage was done. I get that the Minister could not mitigate against all of that but we were all talking about resilience. What engagement has there been between by the Minister, the Department and the Government - I know it is beyond ESB in that regard - about building in resilience? As regards the threats to the consumer in dealing with this cost, Paddy Hayes rowed back from that but we need to ensure that will not be the case.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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Storm Éowyn was an unprecedented weather event. We have had debates and discussions in this Chamber. Many Members have views on it. At the peak, 768,000 homes, businesses and farms had no electricity. I commend all the crews - more than 3,000 ESB Network contractors and colleagues who assisted from Britain and the EU were out there to restore power to our citizens. I acknowledge this was incredibly difficult for a lot of our citizens, the very last of whom were three weeks without power. That means we have to work further on the resilience of our system. I met ESB Networks regularly over that period. I met its representatives virtually the day after the storm. I met them again on 22 January and only last night again. The Deputy can be assured from the Taoiseach down - we have a Cabinet committee in relation to our response to the storm and what we can do to bring our winter programme forward. I mentioned to other Deputies investment in PR6, from 2026 to 2030, as a measure we can bring forward to this year. More than 3,000 ESB poles were replaced post storm along with about 900 km of overhead wires. On issues regarding forestry, I engaged directly with the Minister, Deputy Heydon. We met just last night along with officials from the Department of agriculture, my Department and ESB Networks around tree corridors and how we can advance a programme in that regard. I assure Deputies that we will continue to advance these works. There will be major investment in our grid from 2026 on of more than €13.4 billion. That is up from just over €5.4 billion over the previous five-year period.

Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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I think everyone would welcome engagement, and some would wish this engagement had happened previously, particularly on issues relating to forestry, corridors and the very infrastructure. We know the other failures regarding the grid. I would like to think those engagements were also happening with Uisce Éireann and other bodies. We have seen the issues caused for a huge number of people. Some constituencies were hit a hell of a lot worse than mine but even at that we had particular issues. One example in the Hackballscross area was an ongoing issue regarding Uisce Éireann and a pump station. It was impacted longer than it should have been. It is about making sure we get to the bottom of all of this, that we make a proper assessment, that we ensure the action is taken and that the customer does not have to bear the cost. These are the people who suffered due to some work that should have been done previously.