Jennifer Whitmore

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…

What is it called?

That covers flooding. Does the framework deal with storms?

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 Go…

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…

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 th…

Last year, in advance of the election, Fianna Fáil made a huge play on prioritising women's health. That included free hormone replacement therapy, which was due to come in in January. This was very welcome at the time but, unfortunately, January came and went, and there is still no free HRT for women. There appears to be no plan for putting it in place. Will the Tánaiste let me know what the Gove…

I concur with the previous speakers. The Taoiseach has repeatedly said Storm Éowyn was a storm without precedent, and he is absolutely correct. What is also without precedent is his Government's lack of response. There was no plan. The Government left the ESB to do the heavy lifting.

We will have statements on the matter today but what we need are questions and answers with the Minister to find out where the Government was. Where were the Ministers? What were the Departments doing? How were they actually connecting? The one thing that has consistently come across from all the people who were caught up in this awful storm was they were being left absolutely on their own. We wil…

It is 13 days since Storm Éowyn ripped through the country, including many homes, businesses and farms, causing devastation for so many, especially in the west and north west. It has been a very difficult period for people. When they saw there was no Dáil sitting last week, they really were asking where their politicians and leaders were. I agree with them. Unfortunately, the Government seemed to …

Can I make a point of order?

This is a really serious issue. We have to have-----

-----a chance to discuss it.