Fury as Ireland "sat on EU storm aid offer for days"

There are still more than 200,000 people without electricity and 100,000 without water since last Friday, and many may not see their power return for another week.

Amid the scramble to secure generators, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday pledged to help Ireland while ESB [Electricity Supply Board] crews are being assisted by UK workers with more electricity network operators set to arrive from Austria, Finland, Netherlands and France.

But MEP {Member of European Parliament] Ciarán Mullooly was critical of the pace of the Government’s response and said that it only requested large generators from the EU to pump water into homes on Saturday, four days after the EU first offered its assistance.

Correspondence shared with the Irish Daily Mail shows that the EU Commissioner for Crisis Management, Hadja Lahbib, told Mr Mullooly on Saturday at around 3.30pm that it was "up to the Irish Government to request the activation of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM)".

Ms Lahbib, a Belgian politician, said: "If there is no request, there is no EU response. We must respect the principle of subsidiarity."

However, an hour later, at around 4.30pm, she said that the Government had officially requested assistance.

Worst storm

She told Mr Mullooly: |And just half an hour ago Ireland decided to request the activation of our Union Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM) – specifically for a large mobile generator capacity.|

It is understood that Ireland has now requested at least 15 generators and additional bigger power generators were also requested. This would provide enough power to restart 200 reservoirs.

A spokeswoman for the Commissioner confirmed that they had been in contact with Ireland since Wednesday, while a spokesman for the Government confirmed that they "are actively working with the Commission to secure any available generator capacity in member states that can be transported rapidly to Ireland under the EU Mechanism".

He said: "It is essential that a needs assessment be carried out before a request is made to ensure that the necessary logistics and transport can be actioned effectively."

The new Energy Minister Darragh O’Brien defended any delays, as the Government faced pressure to recall the Dáil.

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The new Energy Minister Darragh O’Brien.

Mr O’Brien said: "I think the scale of that issue that’s something you’d have to quantify. We will certainly engage with Uisce Eireann on it. They’ve [Uisce Éireann] certainly ensured that the system is robust, but we have areas where there are 105,000 people without water."

105,000 homes are still without water

He said there would be "areas that will have to be looked at".

Asked how many generators the State had and whether it had enough, the chair of the National Emergency Coordination Group (NECG) Keith Leonard said that a time like this was a "pinch point", adding: "So they are difficult to obtain at this point. But I know that Irish Water is actually moving generators today to the north of the country from areas where they are needed."

He said: "Resources that we have available to us have been utilized at maximum capacity."

Both Mr O’Brien and the Enterprise Minister Peter Burke insisted that every effort was being made to restore power supplies amid concerns some communities could be left in the dark until next week.

It is anticipated that the vast majority of customers who lost power during Storm Éowyn will have their supply restored by this Friday night. For the remaining customers, these will progressively have power restored over the course of next week – which could be as many as 100,000 customers. A spokesman for Uisce Éireann said many of its large plants have permanent generators in place which automatically kick in when power supply is lost, thereby protecting water supplies to customers. He said: "Not all sites are suitable for connecting to generators.

"For the remainder, we have a stock of mobile generators which are deployed as required to supplement water supplies in the event of loss of mains power. We also work with contractors around the country to source additional generators."

"Working"

Rural Minister Dara Calleary said he understood people’s "frustration" but he said authorities were "working as hard as possible". He said "We will learn lessons" from the damage done by the storm but that there was a "complexity" to some repairs.

"We’re going to reflect on this, reflect on the severity of both this storm and the previous storm, and make changes as is necessary," he told RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin said he wanted to assure all those impacted by the aftermath of Storm Éowyn that everything was "being done".

He said: "The Government will provide all the necessary supports to the households and businesses who have been impacted by this storm. Cabinet will also meet on Wednesday to decide on measures to further support people."

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald, meanwhile, said she had written to Mr. Martin urging him to reconvene the Dáil due to the "unprecedented emergency".

"Not to do so would be political negligence," she said.

However, Energy Minister Mr. O’Brien remarked on calls to recall the Dáil: |To be very frank, the recall of the Dáil, and maybe people trying to politicize an event like this, is not where we should be at."

* This article was originally published on Extra.ie.