Gabhaim buíochas le gach Teachta as a gcuid óráidí inniu. I thank Deputies who have spoken for their engagement in recent weeks on direct cases. That engagement will continue. We are now in the stage where we can look back at the storm and learn lessons from it. Many Deputies have put forward good suggestions this evening, which will be taken on board because, unfortunately, the precedent, as I said previously, has been set. These storms will be repeated. It is important the frameworks are still solid and I commend the rapid response by many local authorities, ESB Networks staff on the ground, Uisce Éireann and by staff in my own Department and the Department of Social Protection, and many response agencies. I thank many NGOs and community organisations and also our independent local radio sector, which broadcast live right across the country during the night of the storm, including my own station Midwest Radio. We are now continuing to look at what needs to be done. There are still people to be reconnected to power tonight and we are particularly focusing on telecommunications and broadband connectivity for many who continue to experience either outages or poor service. The review is under way and I will take on many of the suggestions that have been made by Deputies across the Chamber in the context of that review. The Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy O'Brien, has met with representatives from the CRU, ESB and ESB Networks to discuss the impact of Storm Éowyn. Immediate actions to increase the resilience of the electricity grid system ahead of winter 2025 will be taken as well as the planned grid enhancements to the end of 2030. There will be a full review by ESB Networks and the CRU of the planned grid enhancement and priorities within the next five-year price review process to take account of the impact of Storm Éowyn. A final decision on the CRU's strategic workforce plan will be taken by the end of this quarter. The Government has previously approved a €4 billion investment in the onshore electricity grid for 2021 to 2025. A baseline investment of €10.1 billion for 2026 to 2030 has been sought by ESB Networks with scope for that to rise to €13.4 billion. A final decision is expected and this will include increased spending on asset management on underground cables and in particular on the replacement of ageing overhead lines and poles. ESB Networks will also massively scale up its timber cutting programme. Deputy Fitzmaurice and many others mentioned the need for timber corridors. All of that will be taken on board. Uisce Éireann is also protecting and future-proofing Ireland's water infrastructure. Uisce Éireann needs to review the impact of Storm Éowyn and learn the lessons to ensure there is greater resilience within its network but also across the DBOs mentioned by Deputy Fitzmaurice and group water schemes. Uisce Éireann must examine the requirements for additional generators and alternative power solutions. We are asking it to continue to work with the relevant Departments to ensure enhanced levels of readiness for future extreme weather events. In the Department of Social Protection, we continue to support individuals and families through the humanitarian assistance scheme. The programme for Government includes a commitment to develop an extreme weather event assistance scheme for community organisations, farmers and businesses. I say in reply to Deputy Fitzmaurice that this will be brought forward as a matter of priority.

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I hear his concerns with regard to farming and small businesses in particular. With regard to the humanitarian assistance scheme, to date, the community welfare service of the Department of Social Protection has issued more than 5,000 stage 1 payments, totalling almost €1 million, to people who at the time their application was approved did not have any power or water supply following Storm Éowyn. The community welfare service continues to be available to citizens who are experiencing extreme hardship as a consequence and it continues to work closely with local service directors in local authorities and with other organisations. Community welfare officers continue to be on the ground to support people. They are visiting people and supporting them through it. My Department of Rural and Community Development has also provided a strong pipeline of investment in community infrastructure through schemes such as LEADER, CLÁR and the community centre investment fund. This investment was crucial and played an important part in having a network of emergency response hubs available for all communities. We already have a comprehensive range of capital investment schemes in place. Local authorities and communities can utilise these funding schemes to ensure continued investment that will enhance the resilience of rural communities. Included in this, I have asked my officials to examine the provision of local generators in communities across the country that can be used in circumstances like those of the past two weeks. As I said previously, the programme for Government commits to developing an extreme weather event assistance scheme and work on the development of this new scheme will commence as a matter of priority through the relevant senior officials group. The estimated effect of Storm Éowyn on telecoms networks was the largest in ComReg's recorded history. A significant number of outages experienced on the telecoms networks were due to the lack of power to fixed and mobile infrastructure. While many key sites had battery back-up to maintain service, once battery capacity was exhausted, some network areas experienced severe outages. The deployment of generators meant that connectivity was maintained at core sites across the country. At peak, more than 281,000 fixed broadband customers were completely without services. Also at peak, more than 2 million, or 35%, of mobile customers experienced a degradation of service. ComReg has monitored the situation and liaised with operators throughout Storm Éowyn and the repair operation and is receiving regular reports on the restoration of services. I have asked, along with the Minister, Deputy Patrick O'Donovan, to meet the CEOs of all the communication companies next week to discuss their response. We will ensure that connectivity is restored. I have also asked the Chief Information Officer of the State to provide me with an update on the issues around the TETRA system and how that went down during the storm. The office of emergency planning has established a critical infrastructure committee to oversee the EU critical infrastructure resilience directive. The office has engaged with regulators and established national competent authorities to reinforce compliance with these new regulations across the public sector, with an emphasis on integrated forward planning. This includes working with ESB Networks and Uisce Éireann to improve infrastructure resilience. This involves regular reviews and updates on those resilience measures and, in particular, aligning preventative measures and resilience measures across key sectors. The oversight and regulatory bodies are working with organisations to address the shortcomings that have been exposed over the last two weeks and to ensure continued compliance with various directives. The support for this work will be strengthened. It also has to be recognised that the challenges of the scale and severity of Storm Éowyn were unprecedented. We had sustained hurricane force winds right across the western seaboard. This led to a major impact on many communities. The initial focus of the Government was on safety and the protection of life and critical infrastructure. The focus for the last number of weeks has been firmly on the restoration of power and services, providing assistance to those most impacted and the vulnerable, and getting back to normal operations. Now that this phase is beginning to pass, we will look to the future and a future response that is more resilient to the kind of precedent that has been set by Storm Éowyn. In that context, it has to be noted that the response was timely. Given the circumstances, every effort was made to protect life and minimise disruption. However, that is not to say that lessons do not need to be learned. They will be learned and I look forward to working with Members from across the House in doing so. The humanitarian assistance scheme is still open and I am available to engage with Deputies on it.

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