I congratulate the Minister and the Minister of State on their new roles. I look forward to working with them over the course of the next term. Over the past couple of weeks, we repeatedly heard the word "unprecedented" being used. Storm Éowyn was unprecedented. To a certain degree, we could never have prepared for a weather event of that extent. However, we could have prepared a whole lot better than we did. While the impact of the storm was unprecedented, it was not unforeseen. We have been repeatedly warned by all the different agencies and climate change experts that our weather events are going to become more extreme, that this is essentially a feature of the climate change that we have seen and that this will continue to be the case. I talked about the programme for Government earlier on in the context of climate issues. While I was engaged in research relating to that matter, I came across a modelling report from the EPA. This is the first time there has been specific modelling for Ireland in relation to the impacts of climate change on our country going forward towards the middle of the century. We are looking at a 1.1°C to 1.5°C increase in temperatures, primarily on the east coast. There is the potential for heatwaves and much more intense weather events similar to Storm Éowyn. It is clear we are moving that way but also that we have already moved that way. This is now our reality. The first thing the Government needs to do is make sure that all those people who need support, including financial and advisory support, have it. I refer here to all those individuals who really felt left behind over the past two weeks. That is the immediate response we need from Government. We also need to see a plan put in place in case this ever happens again. The reality is that something of this nature will probably happen. The Government did not have a plan, which I find quite astounding. There is an emergency framework plan for flooding. There are also plans for nuclear disasters and rail disasters. However, there is no plan for storms. I was surprised when I discovered that to be the case. The absence of a plan was clearly illustrated by the response to this storm. There was a chaotic feel to how the storm was dealt with. There was delay on the Government side. The ESB was responsible for doing the heavy lifting and-----

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What is it called?

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That covers flooding. Does the framework deal with storms?

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It is not on the website that has the emergency framework. That document refers to storms in the context of different analyses and stories relating to Storm Ophelia. Background information is provided, but it is not listed there. There is a framework for flooding and others for maritime, rail and nuclear emergencies, but there is none for storms. The document was only updated in 2024. Maybe the Government has it, but it is not on the website where all the other ones are listed. I am delighted that the Government has a plan. Why did it not follow it?

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How was it that one week after the storm, emergency hubs were only being set up? The Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, was on the radio and said that there had been far too long a delay in getting everything set up. It is clear that there were problems with doing so. The one thing people from the west and the north west who rang radio stations consistently stated was that they felt abandoned and that no one was looking out for them. They were not getting direct contact from the Government. The ESB did an amazing job. It had thousands of people out in the worst weather - the type of weather that we would never consider going out in - and working in its call centres. The ESB did a really good job on this but it should not have been left to do it by itself. There should have been a whole-of-government approach.

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I was on RTÉ radio at the weekend and I heard about the case of a young woman who has a dialysis machine and who was left at home. She had to make her own arrangements to get somewhere in order that she could access electricity to run her machine. We need the HSE and GPs to be involved. GPs indicated that they were not contacted. It is clear that there are major gaps. While the Minister may say that the Government has a plan, either it was not followed or it was not sufficient to deal with the disaster that unfolded. Significant work must be done to resolve matters. Given that so many people felt both left behind and not listened to and because there are so many people who have their own experiences and who can, from their perspective, highlight the gap in the response, what we need to do is have a really good engagement with people. A good way of doing this would be to have a special Oireachtas committee. I am not sure if that is something the Minister would consider. It would be a really useful exercise because we could engage with communities, stakeholders and the public and ask them what they would like to see happen next time and what would have helped them on this occasion. We could bring in all the agencies and ask what did they did and what they could have done better. That is the kind of rigorous analysis we need. I ask that the Government consider what I am proposing. It would be a useful exercise. Just before the Minister of State for heritage contributes, I want to comment on the immediate response in the context of how we will deal with such an event in the future. In the context of adaptation, there was mention of potential flooding events. We need to start looking at nature-based solutions to deal with such events. Nature will tell us very quickly where we have gone wrong. We can try to engineer our way out of much of this stuff but that is just not going to work. We really need to focus on adaptation and on how we can actually work with nature to adapt better to these kind of events, particularly when it comes to issues like flooding. I will be talking to the Minister about this in the future. The Arterial Drainage Act - we obviously had a great deal of discussion about this on the climate committee - needs to be reformed. A focus should be placed on doing that. If we are talking about flood prevention and managing our land better, it is something we should certainly consider. On farmers, we talk a lot about a fair transition and how we can assist different communities in making the changes we need them to make. However, we also need to talk about fair transition in the context of how we can support them when events like this happen and we see the significant impact of climate change on certain communities. When it comes to our agricultural community, particularly the horticulture sector, and the impact of this event, there is a real need to evoke the principle of fair transition and support those involved to deal with the aftermath. I spoke to quite a few horticulturists who had major damage done to polytunnels and to glasshouses. Many of them cannot get insurance and many will struggle to get their crops out this year. That is a key area on which the Government needs to focus. The programme for Government, like the motion, refers to an extreme weather event assistance scheme. I welcome that scheme. It is an important initiative, but it will be designed as we move forward. I ask that the first pilot relating to that scheme be targeted at the horticulture sector. Its members play such a huge part in our food security. They create thousands of jobs and add a lot of value to our economy but they are also a part of our agricultural sector that struggles. They live on very tight margins and I fear this storm may have been so catastrophic for some of them that they may find it very difficult to get past it. Will the Minister provide supports to them? That scheme is a good idea if he could get it up and running quickly and ensure they could be the first beneficiaries but, if not, some assistance must be given to them to enable them to get through this period. I thank Sinn Féin for bringing this motion forward. It is a very important discussion we are having. We need to have more of these discussions to make sure that when the next event happens we are as prepared as possible to withstand it and that our communities are as supported as possible so that we do not see the kinds of impacts on people that we have seen over the past couple of weeks.

Sentiment score: 0.19