‘Lessons to learn’ for Government, state agencies and ESB over storm response

By Cate McCurry, PA

There are “absolutely lessons to learn” for the Government, state agencies, ESB and Uisce Eireann following the handling of Storm Eowyn, the Tánaiste has said.

Simon Harris said the response to the storm varied and “significantly” depended on which county a person lived in.

He told the Dáil that the Government needs to look at how it can support communities to be more resilient.

There are currently 12,000 homes, farms and businesses who remain without power supply, almost two weeks after the storm hit the country.

All schools are said to be open after having their power restored or through the use of a generator for the coming days, pending restoration of power by ESB Networks.

Several large-capacity generators have been provided by Poland and Denmark, following a request under the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.

Speaking during Leaders’ questions, Mr Harris said: “I do think there are absolutely lessons to learn for the ESB and for Uisce Eireann, for government, for government departments, for agencies, for local authorities. Just no doubt about that.

“Even in a country as small geographically as Ireland, the response varied very significantly depending on which county you happen to live in, and we need to really look at that and look at how there’s a much more standard and consistent approach.

“We need to look at how we can support the communities to be more resilient.”

It comes as Independent Ireland TD Michael Fitzmaurice raised the issue of trees, claiming that “95%” of the issues connected to power outages was caused by fallen trees.

“Will your Government put in a regulation and fund it, that the trees within 35 metres in a forestry, 30 metres on roads or near a power line or a communication line, will that be looked after?” he added.

“We need to learn lessons from this Tanaiste, where things went wrong, nobody can prevent a storm. But what we need to do is put appropriate measures of mitigation in place to make people’s life a bit easier in a time like this.

“Unfortunately, people with underlying health conditions, those needing hoists, people with disabilities, newborn babies, people needing peg feeding, all the different sleep apnoea machines, all the different types of things that you need, wouldn’t work.

“There was absolutely no communications whatsoever, because phone lines were down, and it was as if we didn’t exist for those few days.”

Mr Harris said: “I think you’re right on trees, and I think we’re going to have to make big calls in relation to this situation.”