Bacik criticises 'lack of solid commitment' from Government on storm resilience

Vivienne Clarke

Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik has said that there is still a lack of solid commitments on how to build better resilience in the country’s infrastructure.

Speaking on RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland, Ms Bacik said there were serious issues about the lack of connectivity, the inability of people to make 999 calls.

The Government needed to bring forward a new extreme weather event assistance scheme as the current one was not enough, she said.

“We need to see that brought forward now with greater urgency and to ensure that there are supports available, particularly for businesses, farms affected as well as households. The amount that's being paid out, the slowness of delivery payment, these are all issues.

“I very much welcome the fact that we've now got a commitment for backup from government that they're going to bring forward their enhanced grid resilience plan within the next month. So we in opposition will certainly be pressing to ensure that that is the case. We do need to see that resilience plan put in place urgently, and we want to ensure that the ESB does not pass on the costs of repairs to consumers.”

That would be absolutely unacceptable, she said.