Green Party calls for immediate action on storm supports

The Green Party has called on the Government to strengthen protections against extreme weather events.

Party leader Roderic O'Gorman's comments were made as the one year anniversary of the country's strongest storm, Storm Éowyn, approaches.

The aftermath of the storm saw over 800,000 homes left without power, while over 100,000 suffered with water outages.

Now, a year on from Storm Éowyn, O'Gorman believes severe weather protections measures are "still far from complete" and has called on the Government for "immediate action".

“As extreme weather events become more frequent and destructive due to climate change, we need to strengthen our emergency services, and resource those who repair critical infrastructure, to respond rapidly and effectively.

"There are three key steps that Government needs to take. First of all, Government needs to rapidly pass the Electricity (Supply) (Amendment) Bill. This will put electricity corridors on a legal footing, meaning owners of forestry plantations must cut back trees away from powerlines.

"Secondly, ESB Networks needs to rapidly get a mutual aid agreement in place with the European Electricity Network, so engineers from other countries can be more speedily deployed to Ireland when the next storm hits.

"Finally, we believe Minister Darragh O’Brien needs to meet with the Climate Change Advisory Council (CCAC) to discuss the significant issues that they has raised with the sectoral adaptation plans to deal with extreme weather events, which were approved by the Government in November," O'Gorman stated.