Vivienne Clarke
The Roscommon resident who confronted Taoiseach Micheál Martin on Tuesday has explained that she took the opportunity to express the frustration of her neighbours over the response to Storm Éowyn.
Rachel Connolly said this was the fourth time in 12 months that her community had lost power.
“Each storm it just gets worse and the power goes out for longer,” she told Newstalk radio.
Ms Connolly asked why there could not be stores of generators in place around the country that could be utilised when storms hit.
She said the climate was changing and such extreme weather events were going to become more frequent and more intense, yet there was no preparation, just “a knee jerk response” from the Government.
Living without power was difficult, she said, but living without water was much more difficult.
She said people in the west felt there were two words to describe their situation: “Forgotten and ignored”.
Ms Connolly said she had taken the opportunity to raise the issue with Mr Martin, not to make front page news, but to encourage the Government to make the issue a priority.
“We need to accept that we need to have long-term policies. We also need to start thinking about things like why are so many trees coming down? A lot of that has to do with the policy of the way that the trees have been planted.”
Meanwhile, the Taoiseach denied that the Government delayed asking the EU for help after widespread destruction caused by Storm Éowyn, one of the worst-ever storms to hit the country.
Mr Martin said it was not his understanding that there was a significant delay in requesting help, including generators and additional crews, from the EU.
He said the issue has been “completely overplayed”, and that some of those involved in helping to organise and restore power have been “frustrated” by the reports.
There were about 142,000 premises still without power on Wednesday, and many have been told that their electricity may not return until next Wednesday.
Uisce Éireann said about 16,000 people remain without a water supply, as of Wednesday morning.
Mr Martin warned of further storms of similar magnitude.
He said on Tuesday: “In response to this storm, it was very evident, what was interesting is the previous investments in community groups and community organisations and facilities has reaped some dividends in terms of having those facilities in place.
“In a world where we are going to experience more severe storms, I think, with greater regularity than we would have had in the past, that social infrastructure, that social and community capacity, is extremely important, working with statutory agencies like the local authorities, civil defence and others, gardaí, HSE, to respond to such challenges.
“We’re now down to about, I think we have back down to 160,000 who are now without power, and we’re going to do everything we possibly can to accelerate that.”
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