PEOPLE have been forced to hold wakes for dead relatives by candlelight due to the delay in restoring power to homes following Storm Eowyn, the Dail heard today.
Almost 800,000 people lost power and 200,000 households lost access to water following the record-breaking wind storm.
Michael Martin called Storm Eowyn ‘the worst in a century’[/caption]
Ivana Bacik told how devastated families have been in touch[/caption]
Two weeks on from the storm, more than 18,000 properties remain without electricity with the ESB admitting that some will not get power back until next week.
The Dail today heard from TDs about the devastating impact of the storm as the Government promised to put in place actions to ensure the mass outages won’t happen again.
Labour leader Ivana Bacik told the Dail that she has been contacted by people who were forced to hold wakes for dead relatives by candlelight due to the outages.
She said: “I have heard from families who have been tragically forced to wake their dead relatives by candlelight.
“From parents unable to cook a hot meal for their bored and cold young children, from older people terrified and isolated by power outages and fallen trees, from people with chronic health conditions whose appointments were cancelled or to which they couldn’t access them.
“I heard just today from one family in Roscommon who are still without power and will remain so until this coming weekend.
“They have had no electricity, no heat, no water since January 24 and this has been the case four times in the last ten weeks.”
The Labour leader demanded that the ESB not pass on the costs of the storm repairs to customers after they recorded operating profits of nearly €500 million last year.
The Dublin TD demanded that the Government put real investment into Ireland’s energy, water and transport systems to make it more resilient for future storms.
Taoiseach Micheal Martin praised the response from Ireland’s emergency services and the ESB as he called Storm Eowyn “the worst storm in a century”.
The Fianna Fail leader has ordered officials to accelerate a plan to improve Ireland’s electricity grid as he claimed it requires an investment of €13 billion over the next five years.
Some 3,000 workers have been working “night and day” to restore power to homes including crews flown in from the UK, France, Finland, Germany, Austria, Norway and the Netherlands.
The Dail heard that Ireland borrowed 18 generators from Denmark, Austria, and Poland to switch on water treatment plants and restore services to properties.
However, Taoiseach Martin admitted that Irish Water should have had back up generators ready to go as he warned that this would not be allowed to happen again.
‘NOT GOOD ENOUGH’
He said: “I don’t think it was good enough that Irish Water didn’t have generators in place at multiple locations. That is now happening and that will not happen again.”
New Energy Minister Darragh O’Brien told the Dail that te ESB will try to stock pile spare parts in order to speed up repairs after future storms.
Some 380 emergency hubs were set up in GAA clubs and other local facilities across the country to help communities with 330 of these remaining open this week.
Thousands were left without power after the ferocious storm[/caption]
