When Storm Éowyn struck Ireland in January, the havoc it wreaked exposed the country’s deep vulnerability to the sort of extreme weather events that are becoming more frequent due to climate change. More than 768,000 homes lost power, 200,000 were cut off from water, and over a million lost broadband or telephone service. Despite that devastation, the Climate Change Advisory Council (CCAC) warns that the State remains totally unprepared as another storm season looms.
A review of the response to Éowyn, due in the summer, has not yet appeared. It will apparently be released “shortly”, a phrase that is becoming the defining metaphor of climate inertia.
The CCAC’s critique is blunt: last winter’s storms exposed significant shortcomings in how State agencies and services respond. Departmental adaptation plans remain vague, lacking measurable targets or timelines. The National Coastal Change Strategy, launched two years ago, still has no clear path to delivery.
What the country needs now are concrete preparations, not deferred promises. The CCAC calls for regional emergency hubs, pre-stocked with equipment and supplies so that service providers are not left scrambling at the first sign of another storm. It insists that a permanent, properly funded extreme-weather assistance scheme for households and small businesses is required instead of the ad hoc approach that currently exists. Local authorities must receive increased resources to recruit climate teams and implement strategies before they are overwhelmed, not after.
RM Block
The Government’s continued dithering suggests a failure to face a stark reality: storms of Éowyn’s magnitude are no longer rare anomalies but harbingers of a harsher climate reality. The next one may not wait for a lengthy review process, or debates and delays.
It is simply unacceptable to issue warnings or lament “unprecedented” weather when infrastructure fails and communities suffer. Ireland must stop pretending it is too complicated to prepare and start acting with urgency.
