Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for raising this issue. There were outages in my constituency on Tuesday night, which affected residents in Kilternan, Stepaside and Carrickmines. People wondered what would happen afterwards and what recourse they had, in particular in respect of standing charges which are under price review 6. A lot needs to happen to our infrastructure in this country, in particular energy infrastructure.

The Senator is correct. The review on tree lines and everything else is key. I have no doubt that, in the coming weeks and months and probably before the House returns after the festive break, we will deal with constituents who have unfortunately faced outages due to weather events that happen at this time of year. The guarantee scheme offers an opportunity to such people. This is not a nice thing to have or a luxury for a lot of people; it is the means to be able to buy food at the end of the week. When people lose power, that affects their businesses and farms because there are additional costs in respect of batteries, torches or whatever else. I am very grateful to the Senator for raising this issue.