The father of a four-year-old child who requires full time oxygen has voiced his outrage as their house is left without power in the aftermath of Storm Éowyn.
Five days on from Storm Éowyn, around 142,000 homes, farms and businesses still have no electricity, while over 30,000 premises still have no water supply.
A number of families have been told it could take until the middle of next week to have their power reconnected.
Emergency crews - including some from abroad - are working around the clock to repair the “unprecedented damage” caused to the electricity infrastructure last week.
Mark from Roscommon called in to Lunchtime Live with the details of his situation after the storm.
“We have no power,” he said. “We have a small child, four years old, with severe lung issues and [who] is on oxygen, is bed bound, and we have absolutely nothing since Friday of the storm.”
“We have received no communication whatsoever.
“I am absolutely disgusted at what is going on in the State at the moment and the waste of money.
“I hear about a wall costing €500,000 - we haven't got the basics in this country to keep going when there's a storm or antenna, no forward thinking at all.”
A fallen tree breaks up the pavement during storm Eowyn in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Friday, Jan. 24, 2025. Image: AlamyMark said he doesn’t blame the politicians – he blames the people that voted them in.
“This is going on for years and years and years,” he said.
“Rural Ireland has been left behind - we're encouraged to buy electric cars; electric heating systems and we have nothing when these things come.
“I am beyond frustrated.”
"It's basic, basic, basic stuff"
Mark bought a generator a few years ago from a local builder and got an electrician to rewire his house – but the generator “packed it in” during an earlier storm.
“I cannot begin to tell you how enraged I am about all this because it's basic, basic, basic stuff,” he said.
“We're driving young people out of the country and they're 100% correct to go out of this country altogether because in their time of need, no one will stand by you.
“The waste of money is incredible - we have another four or five years now with this waste, no forward thinking whatsoever [and] it takes too long to implement policies.
“There's one thing missing in this world at the moment and that is common sense, this is the rarest commodity known to man.”
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Mark said he has been contacting local authorities and representatives, but he has only received one phone call back.
“To be honest with you, I was actually no further the wiser from before I rang them, they didn't give me any information at all of where I could go to get some assistance,” he said.
Mark’s four-year-old son is in the hospital now to get his oxygen.
“We're a wealthy country - we have loads of money for this and that and the other, we have all this money for cycle lanes and all these things that are costing hundreds of millions - and we haven't got the basics of power and water,” he said.
Mark said his stress levels are “beyond believing”.
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Workers clearing a fallen tree on Grove Park Drive in Dublin. Picture date: Sunday January 26, 2025. Image: PA Images / Alamy
