Conor D McGuinness: Calls for Mobile-Backed Alarms After Storm

Minister, last January, Storm Eowyn exposed serious weaknesses in how the state protects older people and sustains rural communities. In many rural areas, the loss of power and connectivity carried consequences far beyond inconvenience and unpleasantness. For elderly people living alone, often at a distance from family and neighbours, pendant alarms and home monitoring systems are a vital safety net. Those systems exist precisely because government cuts and neglect means Garda and ambulance response times are too long, there is a dearth of public services in rural communities. And when connectivity fails, that safety net all but disappears. What happened during Eowyn and in the weeks that followed, followed a well-worn pattern. Large numbers of older people remain dependent on copper landline-based alarm systems, even in areas where fibre broadband is available. And these systems are more vulnerable to storm damage, harder to repair and in most cases operate without any mobile network backup. When overhead lines go down, the alarm systems go down with them. Alongside this, local community and voluntary organisations are carrying a growing burden. They manage alert systems, support vulnerable residents and step in during emergencies, often with limited funding and limited capacity. Demand continues to rise as our population ages, yet funding and supports have not kept pace. If government is serious about the future of rural communities, practical steps are required. Communities must be supported to move away from copper-dependent alarms to modern devices with mobile backup. Monitoring systems need to work properly with fibre where it's available. Providers in the state must also be equipped to deploy mobile-enabled alarms quickly after major storms. And rural communities are being asked to live with higher risk, weaker services and slower responses. And that needs to stop and they need to be listened to. And we need to see this become a matter of political priority and older people taken out of harm's way, this issue addressed, this issue recognised and action taken. Goor mārgut Cíirlik. I'd like to thank both deputies opposite for raising this important topic of the issue and welcome the opportunity to outline the position on this important matter on behalf of the Minister. Cíirlik, this government takes the safety of vulnerable individuals in our society extremely seriously and recognises the effect of Storm Aeoan and the impact it had on power, water and telecommunication services for those individuals. The Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gwail Doctor is responsible for the Seniors Alert Scheme which provides older people with personal monitored alarm. These personal alarms operate over available telecoms networks to connect users to monitoring services allowing users to call for assistance. Since the scheme was launched in 2015, 159,090 participants have been approved including over 17,725 alone. Participants are provided with the device for free and free monitoring for the first year. I am informed by Minister Cleary's officials that the Department is currently reviewing all aspects of the Senior Alert Scheme including the technology and services available and plans to launch a new iteration of the scheme in 2026. The new scheme will take account of the learnings from recent weather events and will also have regard to modern technology advancements to ensure that the most reliable, robust devices currently available are procured. With regard to the broader issue of connectivity, losses during emergencies and the work ongoing in the Department of Culture and Communication support in relation to this issue. Firstly, the Deputy should be aware that the provision of electronic communication services such as mobile phone and broadband services is a matter for telecommunications operators who operate in a liberalised market regulated by the Commission for Communications Regulation, Comreg. Comreg is independent in the exercise of its functions in accordance with section 11 of the Communications Regulation Act of 2002. Storm Aeon had an unprecedented impact on telecommunications networks. The impact of power loss in the sector during the storm and delays to repair of overhead lines in some areas afterwards had significant effects on citizens, particularly in rural areas in the north and the west. Both Government and the telecommunications industry recognise the challenges faced by those whose telecommunications connectivity was impacted during the storm, in particular vulnerable individuals who rely on the functioning of this technology for health monitoring and pending alarms. Since the storm, the Department has undertaken significant engagement with a variety of stakeholders to address gaps in sexual preparedness and response. Operators have independently assessed their preparedness and committed to a variety of network-specific measures, including reviewing the power requirements of sites, acquiring additional backup battery and generator capacity, preventative network maintenance, enhancing redundancy with backup routes to their core networks, accelerating the use of satellites to provide additional resilience. The Department has formed the Telecommunications Response and Resilience Group, the purpose of which is to promote resilience and high availability of Ireland's telecommunications infrastructure and to provide a coordinated sectoral emergency response capability. The members of the group, which includes the Government, stakeholders, Comreg and industry, has agreed an initial work plan to include the development of measures to improve the physical and power resilience of networks, to coordinate and communicate more effectively during emergencies and to prioritize key infrastructure to provide minimum levels of connectivity during emergencies. The focus of the group's initial efforts is to improve, firstly, the resilience of telecommunications sites, particularly mobile, and secondly, communications and coordination between response stakeholders. These broad, impactful and achievable measures will restore a connectivity more quickly to all customers during emergencies, including but particularly those who rely on using health monitoring and pendent alarms. It's not good enough, I think, for Government to just acknowledge the challenge and to engage with industry on this. Those, that is helpful, absolutely, but it doesn't change the reality on the ground. And older people are left without monitoring during Storm Eowyn and future storms that are bound to come and cause similar levels of destruction. The same vulnerabilities remain in place and that's what needs to be tackled. Copper-based alarm system, still widely used, still fragile, still unsupported by mobile backup. So we need to see Government investing in that stock of mobile devices that can be deployed at short notice in those communities that are impacted. Community organisations should not be left to absorb this level of risk indefinitely. And families can't substitute for a functioning system when a storm hits. What we also need to see is local authorities empowered to deal with trees that are not being cut down by landowners. As a former councillor, I think anybody in this chamber who has that background will tell you, the most that a local authority can really do is write letter after letter to a landowner. Sometimes a landowner who's not receiving letters, maybe they no longer exist on this earth. So it is really important that local authorities are also empowered to tackle these and they're resourced to do that work too. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. I thank the two deputies opposite for their supplementary. The review of Storm AO and published in October of last year by the Department of Housing recognised the particular challenges of providing humanitarian support to vulnerable people during emergencies, acknowledging the complex and multi-sectoral nature of developing effective response measures and the complexities of defining reporting and sharing information in relation to vulnerable people. However, it did more than just acknowledge some of the recommendations of the review include exploring outreach structures to ensure communication is possible with vulnerable and isolated people in the event of an emergency where typical challenges of communication are unavailable and that the area of vulnerable people be further developed under the auspices of the Government Task Force on Emergency Planning. The Department will continue to engage with relevant processes developed as a result of Storm AO and where appropriate link industry with developments in state response measures, including central government as well as local government. The review recognised the important role, however, that Unpuss played during Storm AO. When the impact of the storm on telecoms and data infrastructure made contacting people difficult, Unpuss staff delivering posts provided a direct link to persons living in remote locations, checking on the welfare of older or vulnerable individuals, Unpuss has indicated a willingness to continue to support the coordinated response to a national or local emergency in this capacity. The Comrade consumer care team is also dedicated to offering help to all consumers who may experience difficulties with their mobile, home, phone or broadband provider, including vulnerable elderly and consumers with disabilities who are experiencing difficulties in outages or have no service. Where a consumer has difficulties with a provider, they recommend contacting their consumer care team, which can be done by a wide variety of channels outlined on their website and an information campaign is underway now to make sure that those channels are aware of that it's not simply when the event happens that you're desperately seeking around how do you make contact, particularly aware that that might be the very reason why you're having to contact. you you you you