As some parts of the country enter day five of no electricity, water, gas or phone signal following Storm Éowyn, there has been multiple calls for the Dáil to resume to address the crisis.

Mary Lou McDonald has written to the Taoiseach asking him to urgently recall the Dáil.

“So many people are going through a very tough time with serious disruption to their lives,” she said in a post on X.

“Hundreds of thousands are without electricity and water and face the uncertainty of more days without supply.

“Households and Communities are dealing with real emergencies.

“TDs must be given the opportunity to raise these issues and concerns directly with Government and to engage on the responses and supports needed.”

On Newstalk Breakfast, Sinn Féin TD for Roscommon and Galway Claire Kerrane said the accusation that Sinn Féin are politicising this issue is “not fair”.

“I actually made this call on Sunday and it was off the back of the people that I represent, the people that put me in the position I am in, getting in touch, raising issues and questions I couldn't answer,” she said.

“I had queries from right across the constituency but I was taken aback that a lot of people in the West and Northwest had the attitude of we are in an emergency situation, and the Government and the Dáil are on their holidays.

“Now, for those of us living in the West and Northwest, we already feel left behind a lot of the time, and the facts show that we actually, in fact, are.

“So, I think the Government has an opportunity here to say, ‘You are in crisis and we are here - we are going to put together a coordinated response cross-departmental’.”

ESB Networks crews and partner contractors pictured on site near Dunmanway in West Cork. 25/01/2025 Picture: Michael O'Sullivan /OSM

Deputy Kerrane said the fact the Dáil isn't sitting “as it should be” leaves her in a really difficult position as an elected representative.

“I took phone calls yesterday from farmers stood in front of 80 cattle with no water, and I said, ‘Oh, well, I'll check in with the Minister for Agriculture or the Department’,” she said.

“I was thinking to myself, sure I might get an email tomorrow, I might get it Friday - you stand there with the bucket with your cattle and I'll come back to you.

“I had another woman - her child is two and she's a cancer patient – asking, ‘Can I go to accommodation? Will the cost be covered?’ Well, I'll email and I'll see.

“Yesterday, when the Government kept saying, ‘Oh, we need to be on the ground’ [but] what we saw yesterday was 14 hubs rolled out day four into this storm - and 11 of the 14 are in one county.”

"Breaking their backs"

Deputy Kerrane said the ESB and Irish water are “breaking their backs” repairing storm damages and she is “not going to be ringing them asking about water for a farmer”.

“The Department of Agriculture should have this information out and it should be available to farmers, many of whom have no access to communication at all and they're asking me as an elected representative and the information isn't there - that's the problem,” she said.

“We have hot school meals gone to schools that are closed - we could have coordinated to say, ‘Well, there are children that actually won't get that hot meal and it is prepared, it is there - in a lot of cases, it's already ready. Could we do something there?’

“There hasn't been the response that is needed.”

A fallen tree breaks up the pavement during storm Eowyn in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Friday, Jan. 24, 2025. Image: Alamy

Deputy Kerrane said community groups, clubs and organisations are coming together to do the work of Government, “because it isn't getting done”.

180,000 homes, farms and businesses are still without electricity since the record breaking winds caused by Storm Éowyn last Friday.

The ESB is welcoming crews from Austria, Finland, the Netherlands and France from today as they look to get power up and running over the next few days.

100,000 premises are still without water.

Listen back here:

Workers clearing a fallen tree on Grove Park Drive in Dublin. 26/01/2025 Image: PA Images / Alamy