Irish government accused of being ‘missing in action’ in response to Storm Eowyn

The Irish government was “missing in action” during the clean-up to damage caused by Storm Eowyn, a Social Democrats TD has said.

Wicklow TD Jennifer Whitmore said the government can no longer “wash its hands” of the response and said Environment and Transport Minister Darragh O’Brien should answer questions.

She said the Dail should have sat last week to discuss the storm response and the thousands of people left without power, water and broadband.

As of Tuesday, 25,000 people remained without power and less than 300 were without water after Storm Eowyn damaged homes and infrastructure.

The unprecedented weather event prompted a nationwide red-level warning and saw the death of a 20-year-old man in Co Donegal who was killed after a tree fell on his car while he was driving home from work.

Ms Whitmore said: “We should have been sitting last week, the Dail should have been sitting last week, the country was in crisis. The fact that the government was missing in action was completely unacceptable and I think the government really needs to answer questions about that.

“Our climate is changing and has changed. This is not our first major storm and the fact that the government was not prepared is inexcusable.”

She said that the party was calling on Mr O’Brien to answer questions about the government’s response, what the plan was and the response next time around.

Taoiseach Micheal Martin said that Ireland needs “a fundamental rethink in terms of storm resilience”.

He said: “What the evidence is showing is that storms are far more severe, and they’re becoming more severe, and also the frequency of such severe storms is now without question, and therefore we have to do a fundamental re-evaluation of the grid, for example, in terms of its resilience; also in terms of back-up for the water system, in terms of at a minimum, back-up generators; also then investing in local networks.”

Tanaiste Simon Harris said that there needed to be a “bigger, deeper dive” into how Ireland responded.

Mr Harris said “an awful lot more” needs to be done to prepare for severe weather events in Ireland, and mentioned generator supplies in particular.

Ireland has been offered 17 generators, through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, from Poland and Denmark.

They are being deployed to support Uisce Eireann and telecommunications infrastructure.

“I think it’s really important when this immediate phase of recovery is over and I’m conscious – this is dragging on a long time for people now – when this phase is over, I think it’s very important that we don’t just have some sort of ‘look back’ exercise like we have after any storm, but that we have a much bigger, deeper dive in terms of how communities, how local authorities, can be better prepared,” said Mr Harris.

“What do we need to do in terms of generator supplies, as one example, and how do we make sure that process is inclusive, so everybody can feed into it.

“I think it’s really important that we in government bring forward a comprehensive proposal on that in the weeks ahead.”