Joanne Collins (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. I will highlight a couple of things, the first of which is that rural Ireland is always treated disproportionately when it comes to infrastructure. We tend to have more forestry where the trees will fall. County Limerick was not that badly affected - it sounds awful to say it - because in certain parts, we got our power back within five days. I know it was much worse up the country. However, we have to remember that this storm came off the back of a previous storm that caused people to have to spend over a week with no electricity and no water, and were unable to leave their houses because there was so much snow. One of the issues raised with me was the plight of vulnerable residents who were not vulnerable enough to warrant hospitalisation. CPAP machines for sleep apnoea would have been a big issue. If possible, we should have a register of vulnerable older people - an extension of what the Government did during Covid - that could be used during the increasing number of storms I am sure we are going to get. When our electricity clicks on and off constantly throughout the year, the list of patients who need things like CPAP machines could be consulted to see if they need get battery packs, etc. Even though it is not always a life-threatening illness, it can be and it can be debilitating to people who have it. We might look at putting a list together, perhaps by getting GPs to send it in centrally and working off the list that was already there for Covid.