Louth TD says 'resilience building' key ahead of next big storm'

“Resilience building” is key to the State’s preparation for the next big storm, Louth TD Ruairí Ó Murchú has told the Dáil, where he also highlighted the problems encountered by residents whose water comes from the pumping station at Hackballscross.

The Sinn Féin deputy was speaking during statements in Leinster House on Storm Éowyn. He said: “I raise a specific issue in my constituency concerning a water system in Hackballscross. It is a pump system that has always had difficulties. It is the end of the line. Not only were the monitoring system and pumping station knocked out, but even when water was resupplied, and the power came back to a degree, there were issues with air locking, pump operation and pressure.

“This is an issue that has been ongoing for a long time and it needs to be addressed. Like many other issues, whether we are talking about forestry, the resilience of the grid or that we have not anywhere next to near what is needed in relation to renewables or any of this, we have an opportunity now to take a look at where we have failed and to see where we can do better. This must be done.”

He said he had heard countless times from politicians in Leinster House about “learnings and that lessons will be learned”, there were, “things that could have been put in place previously and preparations that could have been made.”

He said: “A new term we have decided we are going to talk about is “resilience building” and that we are going to check in relation to our capacity, but we must actually do this. I commend the huge amount of work done by people in Uisce Éireann, the local authorities, the ESB and the foreign teams that have come in to help to restore electricity. A huge body of work has been done.

“The fact is that we are dealing with some of the capacity issues we have all known about for a long time. We have all been contacted by families that have been in dreadful sets of circumstances. Even though a large part of my county did not suffer the same as some, there are still people who do not have electricity or water now.

“We all know that, as per normal, the community voluntary sector groups, including the GAA and others, all stepped up to the mark. This must be welcomed. We have all welcomed the humanitarian assistance scheme, but we have had major issues in respect of the flexibilities that need to be put into the scheme and the fact that there has been a lack of clarity. We could have been here at an earlier stage when we could have brought up these issues and brought this to a conclusion.”