Michael Fitzmaurice demands hard cash for storm-hit farmers

We are nearly three weeks into this bomb that hit the Midwest, the Midlands and the Northwest. It's good to see people coming back, but my God, three weeks is a long time. I think Eamon Ryan's dream of his air to water turned into a nightmare for most people that were perished in their houses. Thank God a lot of people had a chimney, and I think we should go back and make sure that people are allowed chimneys in all counties, because what some people endured was catastrophic. I think we need to come in DSB, the people on the ground, not the people up at the top. There's a lot of talk about infrastructure, but I've gone round the whole place, and trees is what is our problem. Everywhere the corridors of trees within them woods, they're on top of the wires. And second of all, along roads and along all cables, be it communications cables or be it ESB cables, that's what has caused our problem everywhere, and we've got to address that. I would ask you, Minister, that a lot of contractors went in helping out, and a lot of farmers now will need hedge cutting done and stuff like that. You need to be looking at the end of this month by extending that for those people. What do we do? We need to learn from this. We can give out and give out, but we need to learn. Minister, in your department, you have the group water schemes, I think, in my opinion, and I think you need to arm them now for the future. DBOs as well, and you need to haul Irish water in, because they should be prepared for something like this again. I think that, you know, that's in your gift and you need to do it. Sadly, the Minister for Enterprise, Minister Borch, seems to have disappeared. There needs to be a budget put in place for small businesses, and also for the likes of creches and places like that. For small businesses, there isn't a word out of anyone how we are going to help them. They have been closed, and they need to have a backup, and I think we need to make sure we do that. In relation to Minister Cleary, and I do welcome that you are on the phone all the time, but there is one thing I will ask you. We need to look straight away and see what can we do for local communities in reinforcing, be it small generators, a grant towards it, especially people that have underlying problems, but also community hubs to make sure that they are armed. But the one thing on the humanitarian side of it, and I know you are familiar with it, but they seem to be just saying it is basically in the house with one form, if the French got into trouble or whatever, but after that, maybe damage at the house, but outside that, we have turf sheds, but we also have one thing, and some Minister needs to address this, Tams, and I welcome Minister Hayden's announcement on the generators, but Tams for sheds that the roof has gone off isn't going to work, because the roof has gone off at the moment, there are cows caffing, there are weanlands within and sheds, and what they want is poor lines and sheets of galvanites. To put it simple, it is not that we need to build a full new shed and put in our name and then we have someone after three months telling us we can do it, and then go down the road of getting a grand 40%. We need hard money type of a fund this minute, and I would ask you Deputy or Minister Kileare, would you talk to the Ministers about this, because this needs doing, these sheds, this isn't complicated stuff, it is sheets of galvanites and it is sheets at its poor lines, it is the big thing that is being taken away, and those farmers need help in that. I would ask you also to make sure that whatever legislation, we need to do legislation shortly, to make sure that these trees, that there isn't some do-good are now saying, well that's too near the wires, and I would ask you that this has to be addressed. I'm saying, and I'm the first to say it, that we'd saw two down the field, but let no one be coming along in a suit telling someone you cannot cut this after they're spending three weeks without electricity. This has to stop, the madness has to stop what's going on right around the country. The other thing, Minister Cleary, I would say to you is, an awful lot of people with path hurdle for generators, hiring them out, and a lot of people had to pay extra for food, in that, trying to get foods in places. I know that there was some laid on. I would ask you to look at that for those people, because we need to learn every little piece of what went wrong, to try and rectify it. In the line of the ESB, yes, investment needs to be done, poles broke in places, but I tell you one thing, there's a damn good reason a lot of them to break, because there was big lumps of basically forestry trees that came down them. The other thing that needs to be addressed, and this is in state forestry and private forestry, is that there are trees that came down on an adjacent farmer's field, blowing the fences out of it. And I would ask you as a government to look, you have only a week or two left, that the contractors that went in helping out, right around the west of Ireland, have other work that there were to be at, in the line of hedge cutting, I would ask you to look at that. And Deputy Cleary, in the line of rural Ireland, will you please, I'm saying it very clear to you, a lot of ministers might not understand what went on, you are from the west. You saw the destruction that was done, I am asking you, on the line of the sheds that have been decimated in the line of the roofs, it's the roofs, it's not the walls, will you please talk to somebody and put a fund in place for that, because the times isn't, it's going to be too long. Like the summer will be ended, and the winter will be coming again, and it won't be resolved. I am asking you, will you try and resolve that, and the other things that I have mentioned here. Thanks. Deputy, Deputy. Deputy. Deputy. Deputy. Deputy. Deputy. Deputy. Deputy. 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