81. Deputy Keira Keogh asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht if there are plans to move panic alarms administered by Pobal under the seniors alert scheme from copper phone lines to more robust broadband lines and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55509/25]

Sentiment score: -0.03

Storm Éowyn highlighted how vulnerable our older constituents with panic alarms and pendants are. Are there plans to move the seniors alert scheme away from copper phone lines?

Sentiment score: -0.22

It is welcome that a review is taking place. All of us, including my colleague from Mayo, are scarred by what we witnessed during Storm Éowyn. I would like to know how many people on the alarms are still on the old copper telephone lines. We need to look at this retrospectively. I understand the review is not supposed to be finished until next summer and I am worried about our preparedness for this winter. This relates to vulnerable adults in their nineties whose panic alarms go down. First the ESB goes down. They wait for the electricity to come back and then realise the problem is the telephone line, and Eir does not have the wayleave rights necessary to get onto properties. Following Storm Éowyn, it was weeks and sometimes months before an alarm was restored. If there is family nearby, they have to move in for days and communities try to rally around. I was awake in my bed at night thinking something was going to happen to a 90- or 100-year-old on their own in their bed.

Sentiment score: -0.08

Cross-government action is needed. We see the fantastic roll-out of the national broadband plan, which is having great results in Mayo. As the Minister of State said, broadband alarms are being recommended, but we have to go back retrospectively. More than 1,000 people in Mayo are using these alarms. I think of the people in Binghamstown, Belmullet, out in Leenane and in some of the rural black spots. Where we have been successful in putting in rural broadband we should get community groups to go out retrospectively, right now, ahead of winter 2025 to see the people whose panic alarms are attached to copper telephone lines, and see if we can get them switched over to the national broadband plan where it has already caught up. I acknowledge that there are ongoing reviews following Storm Éowyn and into panic alarms. However, if we are in this situation in December and the telephone lines go down again, I do not think we will be accountable to our constituents if we leave them.

Sentiment score: -0.04