Rose Conway-Walsh says Mayo left without power after storm
Rose Conway-Walsh criticised the response to a severe storm that left parts of Mayo without electricity and water 13 days later. She described the official response as unacceptable, urged urgent restoration of power and water, and questioned why additional resources were not deployed sooner.
Key criticisms
Rose Conway-Walsh told the minister that it was unacceptable that, 13 days after the storm, people in Mayo still had no light or water. She said the response was not urgent enough, crews should have been on standby, and vulnerable people should have been looked after sooner.
Human cost and medical failures
She extended condolences to the family of the man in Donegal who died and described a local case where medical equipment such as a mattress and sleep-apnea equipment could not be used, after which the patient died while being taken to a doctor. She said these examples underline the urgency of restoring services.
Aid, army and parliamentary response
Rose Conway-Walsh questioned why the army was not brought in from day one and why "the doll" did not return immediately. She criticised delays in humanitarian aid, the slow provision of alternative accommodation, and warned that lessons must be learned for future storms.
Infrastructure and farming losses
She blamed failures by ESB and the air grid and urged investment to make the network more resilient, recalling previous requests to put lines underground. She highlighted farmers facing destroyed sheds, delayed payments, lost stock and a reported oyster-farm loss of £160,000, and said relief schemes must be accessible with less bureaucracy. She also raised concerns that Ishgeirn and group water schemes lack generators and need funding now.
Local communications and immediate demands
Rose Conway-Walsh praised Midwest Radio for local communication and urged that its role be remembered when broadcasting funding is allocated. She concluded by calling for electricity and water to be reinstated within hours to the affected areas, especially in Mayo.
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Gair maith agat and kogorjus minister in your new role and best of luck in your new role and what a baptism of fire you will know coming from the same county as myself and Mayo how much we have suffered over the last two weeks and you will also know minister that is absolutely unacceptable that we are 13 days after the storm and that people have no light and no water and I know you will have got all of the cases that I have got come across my desk in the last two weeks of the real real hardship that people have suffered with this storm and minister I have to say I don't think this the response was not good enough it was not urgent enough we knew in the days running into this storm that it was unprecedented that there was nothing like it now you and I are very used of the most harshest of storms in the coastal areas but we knew this was going to be something different so the crews should have been there should have been on standby and things should have been in place in order to be able to ensure that particularly the vulnerable people were looked after so it is wholly unacceptable that there's people still sitting in Mayo and that they don't know when they're going to have light or water and as my colleagues have said the doll should have been back here immediately and I do feel that if there was a similar catastrophe in Dublin that we would be back here sitting in the doll and I don't think that that is is good enough and I was on Midwest radio this morning and I said I was because I had been frightened all week that something was going to happen that somebody was going to die as a result of this in Mayo and I do want to extend my condolences to the man's family in Donegal that has lost his life but very shortly after this somebody from our own constituency rang me to describe to me how the equipment that his father was using couldn't be used the mattress the sleep apnea the several other pieces of equipment they couldn't be and when he went then to take his father to the doctor he died in front of him and that is the tragedy of it and that is how urgent this is and this is why I just don't I cannot understand why the army wasn't brought in either Minister I cannot from day one we have defence personnel there they should be trained in all these things if they're not trained in it and I would suggest that if they're not that they immediately are trained because we are going to have more storms like this so we didn't have the army in we didn't have the doll come back we took a number of days for the humanitarian aid to be put in place or to say that people could have alternative accommodation and to me that doesn't say that doesn't say urgency there is lessons to be learned here but as I fear with many things lessons don't get learned don't get learned I want I really do want to thank Midwest Radio as well we would be absolutely lost without Midwest Radio for communication and we did say to the ESB when I and my colleagues met them last week that they should be taken out adverts in Midwest to communicate with people as well but I hope that that that the role that they have played in this will be remembered when funding is just distributed for broadcasting because without them people would be completely lost altogether and we talked about farmers earlier on we absolutely have to get farmers sheds replaced as well and so many of these farmers as again you will know are already waiting for their acres payments and on top of this now they have no sheds so many farmers have lost father I hear of another oyster farm that have lost a hundred and sixty thousand worth of of equipment and and products there as well we cannot be sitting back we have to put these schemes in place but the schemes have to be accessible and we have to get rid of the bureaucracy with it the fact that Ishgeirn don't have don't have generators is absolutely crazy and that has to be fixed but not only Ishgeirn as well with the group water schemes as well and there has to be funding and made it made available for this now one thing it has laid absolutely bare is that Mayo and rural Ireland has been neglected and and how the ESB and how air grid have been let away by governments with not making the investments that needed to be made and I would say again with air grid we asked them so many times years ago go back to when I was in the council to put some of those lines underground they told bare-faced lies when they told us that it couldn't be done even though we knew from other countries that it could be done so there are many things to be learned from this and we need action on it but the most immediate action we need is for water and and for electricity to be reinstated within hours to the areas that it hasn't been particularly in Mayo
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