Last January, Storm Éowyn exposed serious weaknesses in how the State protected older people and sustained rural communities. In many rural areas, the loss of power and connectivity carried consequences far beyond inconvenience and unpleasantness. For elderly people living alone, often at a distance from family and neighbours, pendant alarms and home-monitoring systems are a vital safety net. Those systems exist precisely because Government cuts and neglect mean Garda and ambulance response times are too long and there is a dearth of public services in rural communities. When connectivity fails, that safety net all but disappears. What happened during Storm Éowyn and in subsequent weeks followed a well-worn pattern. Large numbers of older people remain dependent on copper landline-based alarm systems, even in areas where fibre broadband is available. These systems are more vulnerable to storm damage, harder to repair and, in most cases, operate without any mobile network backup. When overhead lines go down, the alarm systems go down with them. Alongside this, local community and voluntary organisations are carrying a growing burden. They manage alert systems, support vulnerable residents and step in during emergencies, often with limited funding and capacity. Demand continues to rise as our population ages, yet funding and supports have not kept pace. If the Government is serious about the future of rural communities, practical steps are required. Communities must be supported to move away from copper-dependent alarms to modern devices with mobile backup, and monitoring systems need to work properly with fibre where it is available. Providers in the State must also be equipped to deploy mobile-enabled alarms quickly after major storms. Rural communities are being asked to live with higher risk, weaker services and slower responses. That needs to stop and they need to be listened to. We need to see this becoming a matter of political priority and older people taken out of harm's way, this issue being recognised and action being taken.

Sentiment score: -0.22

To follow on from what Deputy Byrne said, it is not good enough for the Government just to acknowledge the challenge and engage with industry on this. That is helpful, but it does not change the reality on the ground. Older people were left without monitoring during Storm Éowyn and will be again when future storms that are bound to come cause similar levels of destruction. The same vulnerabilities remain in place and that is what needs to be tackled. Copper-based alarm systems are still widely used, fragile and unsupported by mobile backup. We need to see the Government investing in that stock of mobile devices that can be deployed at short notice in those communities that are impacted. Community organisations should not be left to absorb this level of risk indefinitely. Families cannot substitute for a functioning system when a storm hits. We also need to see local authorities empowered to deal with trees that are not being cut down by landowners. Anyone in this Chamber who used to be a councillor will say that the most a local authority can really do is write letter after letter to a landowner, sometimes a landowner who is no longer receiving letters and may no longer even exist on this Earth. It is really important that local authorities be empowered to tackle these and are resourced to do that work.

Sentiment score: -0.12