Sarah O'Reilly (Aontú) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming in to listen to us today. When Storm Éowyn happened the people in my constituency were hit really hard. There was loss of connectivity, electricity, water, as well as fuel shortages and a total blackout in my area. An 84 year old man looking after his 83 year old wife with dementia could not call for help because there was no network coverage. They had no power, water, or heat and no way to cook. His wife stopped drinking water because she did not want to use the bathroom as there was no water to flush the toilet. As a result of this, she became severely dehydrated and developed sepsis. Vulnerable people were left isolated and alone, often with no way to reach out for help. They had no panic buttons and no one was checking in on them. I agree with some of my colleagues who spoke about the need to address vulnerable people in our areas and also about hot food, which was a big issue in my area too.

This kind of power outage has been happening in Leitrim and west Cavan for years and people there have been shouting very loudly about it but nobody took any notice until now. It is good that we are going to address it now. Some people in my area were lucky enough to have generators but they ran out of fuel after five days. The filling stations in my area were not pumping fuel because they had no electricity so unless people had stored fuel, they would have run out. Unless they had a transistor or car radio, they would have had no way of finding out where there was fuel available. In order to get fuel, people would have had to have fuel in their cars. I know people who were travelling 40 minutes to Navan to get fuel for their generators. That is how bad it was in our area.

I want to bring up the issue of cash as well. It was really highlighted that the Government needs to do more to protect cash and the use of cash. When power was lost, shops that could open could not accept card payments. The move towards a completely cashless society does not allow for these environmental disasters, so that needs to be looked at. I want to thank my local shop, Supervalu, which opened its doors, provided hot water and allowed people to charge their devices.

Coillte also has to be taken to task in relation to Cavan, west Cavan and Leitrim given the number of issues that arose because of fallen forestry and corridors that were not maintained. The irresponsible and reckless planting by Coillte was disastrous. There must be serious monitoring, control and sanctioning of Coillte for irresponsibly and recklessly planting close to power lines. We need to ensure that the planting corridors are widened and that regulations are being observed by Coillte.