Anger and frustration were evident in Co Roscommon on Tuesday as Taoiseach Micheál Martin visited, with people still waiting to have power, water and phone services restored in the wake of Storm Éowyn.
Rachel Connolly from Cloonkeen, Castlerea, condemned the Government response to the crisis. Ms Connolly said this was the fourth time in 12 months they had lost power and the third time that she had to throw out a freezer full of food.
She told the Taoiseach he needed to get the Dáil back and to sit at the Western Development Commission offices in Ballaghaderreen so politicians could see for themselves the hardships being suffered by people.
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Ms Connolly said the emergency response was not good enough. She did not blame the utility companies but said the Government had not acted quickly enough and was not prepared enough.
She urged the Taoiseach to make grants available to people so they could invest in solar alternatives and come off the grid altogether.
The Taoiseach and Martin Daly TD told Ms Connolly that plans had been made in advance of the storm and supports were available.
However, she did not accept this and criticised “stock answers and one-liners”.
Meanwhile, Julie Malone, a mother of three young children from Trien, told the Taoiseach how difficult it had been over the past few days without power, water or phone services.
With the local national school closed until further notice because of the outages and no sign of a reopening, Ms Malone spoke of the need to draft in extra help without delay.
ESB Networks has given a date of February 3rd for restoration of power, but she said this was “simply not acceptable”.
Ms Malone paid tribute to the ESB personnel, Uisce Éireann staff and council workers who are working around the clock to try and restore services as quickly as possible, but she told the Taoiseach they needed more help and needed it urgently.
[ EU to send 17 generators to Ireland as nearly 170,000 remain without electricityOpens in new window ]
“I don’t want it to sound like I have a sense of entitlement,” she said, “but we put in the preparations, heeded the weather warnings and were as prepared as we could be. Now we are told it will be days before we have any power back.
“I have thrown out a freezer full of food. We have no heat, no water and we are trying to cook on a camping stove. This is an emergency, not just for me and my family but hundreds of other families like ours and hundreds of elderly people who are in an awful situation.”
At d’Gaff community space in Castlerea, where members of Castlerea Town Team and other volunteers are providing charging services and water, the Taoiseach spoke with students from the nearby Castlerea Community School who told him of their concerns about getting applications in on time for university places.
With the CAO deadline looming they said they were very worried over the lack of wifi services and told Mr Martin of the stress this was causing.
The Taoiseach also visited Castlerea Demesne where the Cathaoirleach of Roscommon County Council, Cllr Paschal Fitzmaurice, pointed out the devastation caused. With hundreds of fallen trees the park is now closed to the public.
At the park, Castlerea Towns Trust chairman Liam Scahill spoke of how people were heartbroken over the storm devastation but he vowed to get the park back open again.
The Taoiseach pledged support for the clean-up effort.
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