Gareth Scahill (Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the Chamber this morning. This is my fifth Commencement matter for the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, and he has not entered the Chamber at all yet. I just want to put that on the record.

We have just had Storm Amy and a lot of my constituents in Roscommon once again spent the weekend without power. That follows on from Storm Éowyn back in February when 768,000 customers across the country were without electricity supply because of that storm. On the August bank holiday weekend Storm Floris, on which we had a small little yellow weather warning, also left a large part of west Roscommon without power.

The common denominator is the corridors we have in forestry and the need for the electricity supply (amendment) Bill 2025 to be prioritised and enacted as quickly as possible. I have a press release from 29 July 2025 with a headline stating that the Minister has secured Government approval for legislation to bolster the storm resilience of our electricity grid. I know we are only back, but it is now 8 October and a large number of people across the western part of this country are looking at the next storm in the coming weeks and wondering how long they are again going to be without power.

I spent Friday morning visiting people in Ballinlough outside Roscommon who were without power. I engaged with Deputy Fitzmaurice throughout the weekend about the large number of people without power all across Roscommon. Deputy Kerrane has social media posts with pictures showing these corridors. We all know where the problem is. The ESB needs support for it. We need to enact this Bill. We must compensate forestry owners. We must deliver on this.

The 29 July press release referred to the winter 2025 grid resilience plan. One of the calls in that regard is for "a formal storm review to identify recommendations to prepare for future storms". It is too late for that. We cannot wait for another review on this. This is a problem people are experiencing on the ground today and it must be prioritised. An emergency must be declared in Roscommon or the western part of the country to deal with this. Everybody knows the problem.

I have a letter from a lady I met on Monday. She was going around to her neighbours trying to get them to sign it before sending it in. I will not give her name.

Once again, over the weekend, power lines were brought down where they run through forestry in our local area. This is now the second time [since August] this has happened on this section of the line. The same stretch was damaged during Storm Floris in August when forestry trees fell on the line. Then, during the storm in January, a feeder line from this main line was also brought down in the forestry due to falling trees.

In total, the local area has been without electricity for over three and a half weeks ... [so far this year].

While we all understand that storms are outside anyone's control, what is within the control of ESB Networks is the management and removal of trees that are too close to power lines. It is clear that these trees continue to pose a serious and ongoing threat. Unless this is addressed, the next storm will undoubtedly cause the same problem again.

I have also been in contact with Coillte regarding this matter, and they have confirmed that ESB Networks is responsible for managing vegetation around power lines.

I do not believe that is the case. A multi-agency approach is required. We need to enact this plan and we need to be strong on this. I welcome the Minister of State's statement on the matter.