Michael Fitzmaurice demands ESB action and 30m tree clearance

Minister, I welcome the opportunity in speaking on this motion. I think we need to learn a lot of lessons out of Storm 1. We can blame and blame and give out and whatever, but I think we need to get prepared for the next one rather than do a post-mortem on what needs to be improved. Your department, and I have said this straight to you, and in fairness I will say to you you have been helpful any time I have went to you. First of all they had no date on those letters of closing, and you need flexibility for all people because they came through a tired time telling someone you could apply or go online when there was no internet is sort of a stupid thing, I am not saying it to you but in the department what to say. I think I would ask you to do one thing, to ask your department to be flexible, and I know there is a lot of applications to be gone through yet, to be flexible with people, and if someone applied for the wrong thing or went under the wrong thing, there is one, two and three, make sure that there is the opportunity to go back and guide them. And in fairness, the few that I brought to you, I want to commend you for helping us in them. I will be straight up on that. At the end of the day, we need a lot of lessons learned, and I see Senator Scal over there. Round our country, phones, and in your own county, and in every county in the west, and up towards Cavern, and all that area that got hit. I would say a small factory would have more than one year is out on the road at the moment, in fixing things. Someone needs to hold them to account, because if I am supplying a service to someone, and if I am supplying that service for you, at the moment they are charging, they are sending out bills, the phone companies to people. What about the people that have the alarm around their neck at the moment, and they are left high and dry, that is not good enough, and it is not a government that can, but they need to be whipped, and the regulator over communications should wake up, to be quite frank about it, because they seem to be in the dark. They should be putting harsh realities to them, and harsh penalties on them, for the service that they are giving at the moment, because it is not acceptable in any world. Fine if it was a week or two, but the ESB were able to cover half the country, you could say, in the lint they took them, and they brought in resources, and they made an effort, and you have to commend them what they have done, and yes, they have lessons to learn, but in fairness, they have got the power back, but the wires are still in trouble, and one thing that worries me, we had a meeting with the ESB, and if you talk to communications crowds, there is no sort of, we need to get stuck into this, that's learning, that trees cause the most of this problem, in forestry first of all, and our department is still giving licences that you plant near the road, and that you plant near the trees, because 30 metres either side of a wire should be clean, completely clean, because no one should have to ever go through the torture that people went through. The first thing that needs to be done is that the ESB needs to stand up, and if they say that they need legislation, it should be done, simple as that. There are letters going round at the moment, if you write to the council or whatever, there are people that wrote to the councils about trees, there are people that wrote to the Department of Environment, and they said how this is a matter for such a one, and the ESB, and it's a matter for everyone. But the problem is, it was a matter for everyone up to now, and we see the problem. So we have got to make sure that we turn round, and that we learn from this, and that we don't let it happen again. And where there are trees, be it on the side of a road, there should be, I don't care what forestry, it should be 30 metres from a road, because these trees are growing 30 metres high. In the story, no ifs or buts about it. And if someone loses out on that, they lose out on it, you can pay them for the ground, but they won't have trees in it. That's the way it should be. And on top of that, beside the wires, go in through forest trees, or anywhere that there's a wire, and I would be all for planting two smaller trees down in a field or wherever, that you make up the difference. I'm not saying that we leave the country 3-less, but what we need to do is make sure that the cost of what's entailed, like if you look at it, and do an analysis, where trees caused the problem, or where did a pole break, where, you know, outside of that, it's like 100 to 1 of ratio. That's the facts. So if you can eliminate 99% of the problems to 1%, you won't have too many out of power. The other thing I would ask a Minister, and I welcome Minister Hayden's announcement on the generators. I know he's going to do something on the roofs of sheds. I would have liked, but I'll be honest with you, under Tams, I would have liked if that was now, because there was wailings and cows in the sheds, and they were looking up at the sky at night to see the stairs, that would be helpful if that was given now. But look, if he gives it, and he said he has committed to giving it in the coming months, and I welcome that, that's a step in the right direction. I would ask you as Minister for Rural Affairs, and we've mentioned this before, the likes of the community centres, that we'll create hubs, and one thing I'll ask you to do, that be you a small little village, or a bigger place, that we can create a hub, that if a doctor needs to set up, or if there's people without food that you need to cook in it, that you have that facility in all those areas, to make sure that it works. And I would ask you, you know, in your Department of Rural Affairs, to look into that, and to try and get it over the line, because, you know, people, if they have a bit of light and a bit of heat, and you know, I'm a firm believer that there's a lot of people who get sick during the year, they're not on this so-called list the ESP has. And I think we should need some giant-up thinking between everyone to make sure that there's a possibility to make sure they get generators, or, you know, while they're sick. I've seen people that would have the hospital bed and all of that, and it didn't that you need a gigantic one, but you need it set up and the plug they are ready to put in. And these are little things that if a few, if you had like a group working together from the different perspectives, be it the telecoms, be it the ASB, be it the Department of Agriculture for the farmers' side of it, and be it from the medical side of it, doctors and all of people, and communities, which is the heart of it all, to work together to bring up the ideas that we learn, that if we've got one next winter, or in a hundred winters times, that we know what we're doing. The other thing, and it has been touched on earlier, small businesses, in my opinion, you know, they were out of action for a good while, they've got damn all support. All we'll hear is, well, they weren't looking for it. Well, the poor divils are trying to keep the lights on and keep the doors open, and I would ask that they would be recognised for the effort they have made. Because there were some small businesses out of action for a good while, and, you know, you know what you're saying, you come from an area that, the small rural shops and the small rural pubs, and they're trying to keep the, they're giving a service to the area, it isn't for the money that they're making. My God, it's, it's, it's a well-being place, and many a night for people that they'll say hello to someone that they mightn't have seen all day. And, you know, I think that, I'm not, this isn't having a go at you or anything. This is about learning, in my opinion, to, to make it better for everyone, no matter where the storm is. If it's down in the south of the country, or the east of the country, or the north of the country. We know what it is in our area to get a devastating storm. We are only, um, basically trying to give the ideas that we work together to try and drive it forward, that we are more ready, ever ready for that to come again. That's all I have to say, and thanks very much.