Five days on from Storm Éowyn, around 142,000 premises still have no power and have been told it could take until the middle of next week to be reconnected.
Emergency crews - including some from abroad - are working around the clock to repair the “unprecedented damage” caused to the electricity infrastructure last week.
Around 142,000 homes, farms and businesses are still in the dark, while over 30,000 premises still have no water supply.
Yesterday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin visited an emergency hub in the Castlerea area in County Roscommon.
Rachel Connolly confronted the Taoiseach, saying she could be waiting until February 5th for her power to be restored and more preparation is needed.
This is the area’s fourth time losing power in the last 12 months.
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On Newstalk Breakfast, Ms Connolly said her issue with the Government’s response to the storm is that it was forecast and they “knew that it was coming”.
“We all knew that it was coming, it was hurricane force winds,” she said.
“But [for] those of us who live here in the West, you know, this is becoming a more and more common occurrence.
“My concern… it's the utter knee jerk reaction to each event, it's the lack of preparation, the lack of consideration that this is how our climate has changed.”
Ms Connolly said she doesn’t understand why it took something like hundreds of thousands of peoples’ water and power being disconnected for the Government to see that there is an issue.
“Living without power is one thing but living without water is a much more difficult thing and it took five days for an emergency generator to be brought to water pumps,” she said.
“So, if we need to be able to pump water if we knew the storm was coming, which we did, and we knew we were going to lose power, which we did, why were those generators not already purchased?”
"Forgotten and ignored"
Ms Connolly said generators need to be kept aside to prepare for future storms and inclement weather.
“These storms are going to get worse and worse and worse,” she said.
“This is the fourth time in 12 months I've lost power - Storm Darragh took our power out for four days - [but] each storm gets worse and the power goes [out] for longer.
“There's absolutely no reason why we can’t have 1,000 generators - look how much we're spending on a children's hospital that hasn't even been built yet."
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Ms Connolly said she’s hearing frequently that people in the West feel forgotten and ignored.
“This isn't going to get any better, this is only going to get worse,” she said.
“We need to accept that [and] we need to have long term policies.”
Ms Connolly’s power is not due to be back until February 5th and her water is meant to already be back but it is not, as of yet.
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ESB Networks crews and partner contractors pictured on site near Dunmanway in West Cork during restoration works in the aftermath of Storm Éowyn. 25/01/2025 Picture: Michael O'Sullivan /OSM
