Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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29. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if he has engaged with telecommunication companies in relation to phone lines still being out, 70 days after storm Éowyn; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17924/25]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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Following a meeting between my colleague Minister O’Donovan and telecoms operators, officials in my Department have been working with industry to progress a plan to improve network resilience to future severe weather events in the near term. This plan will also ensure that future restoration efforts take on board the lessons learned following Storm Éowyn. The development of this plan is ongoing and will be discussed at the next meeting of the Mobile Phone and Broadband Taskforce.

Minister O’Donovan has also met with operators via IBEC Telecommunications Industry Ireland.

My Department is also participating in the Storm Eowyn review process led by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage under the Strategic Emergency Management Framework. Learnings and recommendations out of this process will be considered as part of the Department’s ongoing plans to improve resilience of telecommunications networks.

My Department does not have any statutory power to intervene in restoring phone lines to affected users. This is a matter for the telecommunication operator(s) to address.