Debate contribution: Storm Éowyn: Executive Response

Debate contribution by Ms Michelle O'Neill on 27 January 2025.

MLA

Ms Michelle O'Neill

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

27 January 2025

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Ministerial Statement

Heading

Storm Éowyn: Executive Response

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4758679

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Go raibh maith agat, a Cheann Comhairle.

I thank you and your staff for facilitating this important strategic statement on the back of the unprecedented events over the weekend. I apologise to Members that we got the statement delivered to them only in the past short while. We are in live play and are actively responding to the storm as we speak. The storm has had an unprecedented impact across the entire island of Ireland as well as Scotland and northern England. It has left our citizens without power, water and access to communication. Some of our MLA colleagues will have experienced that themselves, and we have all seen and heard about the impact on our constituents. We wanted to come to the Assembly today to confirm our commitment to getting everybody's services restored as quickly as possible. Across the Executive, all of our Ministers have been engaged in that effort, and I thank colleagues for that collective focus. In the interconnected world that we live in, that has been absolutely vital. Roads, schools, power, connectivity and hospitals do not exist without one another, and the effort has been huge. Our front-line workers have been really wonderful and will continue to make a strong effort in the coming days.

For our part, we have been closely engaged with the British Government to secure additional resources for NIE; we have engaged with the Prime Minister directly; we have had COBRA meetings; we have had Executive meetings; and there have been regular updates within our system across all our civil contingencies. In significant events such as this, the initial response is vital, as is the recovery phase, which we are now moving into. Our structures for civil contingencies have involved local government at the outset, then the PSNI, DFI and the Department for Communities. That partnership and multi-agency working is essential and, again, is much appreciated. What matters most, of course, is the impact on our citizens, especially the vulnerable. We reiterate our message to everybody to check in on family and friends, people in your street and your neighbours, who may be experiencing difficulties. The community assistance centres are there to help. As always, we are grateful to local government for the centres and how quickly they were able to stand those up and for the support that they provide. We are also grateful for the support that has come and is coming over to assist NIE in the task of restoring power. That is specialist work. We ask people to take great care around electricity cables, because many are still down. Please, do not take any risks, and, please, stay safe. We will continue to monitor the situation and work collaboratively with all stakeholders, as it is of great concern to us all. We want to continue to engage with the British Government to build on the request. I have engaged with the Tánaiste directly about practical support, but we all face similar challenges at the moment. The facts and figures will change over the coming days as we get more power and water restored, but I want to give an update on what we knew as of 10.00 am today. There were 2,600 incidents recorded on our roads as a result of the storm, resulting in a large number of road closures. Although the main strategic road network has now opened, there are still around 100 closures with many roads remaining blocked, 60 of which require NIE assistance to remove electric cables and poles. On Sunday, 80% of the road network covered by winter service was able to be treated. That was a huge stretch in the work of DFI staff, and we welcome that. More than 100 schools — maybe as many as 154 — have reported damage to their property, ranging from minor damage to fences and missing roof tiles to much more significant structural damage. It is estimated that approximately 100 schools are still without power. NIE has confirmed that it will, where possible, prioritise schools that do not have power. We met NIE this morning to make that case. Potentially, up to 20 schools are listed as closed today. Hopefully, we will improve that picture as quickly as possible. At the peak, there was an unprecedented level of power outage: 285,000 customers were without power as a direct result of the storm. There were over 5,000 individual faults in the network that needed to be assessed and resolved. As of this morning, 65,000 customers remain without electricity. NIE has escalated its staff cohort and now has 1,000 staff on the ground providing support to try to get customers' electricity restored. Over 210,000 people have had their electricity restored, which is really significant progress, although that is not to take away from the fact that many people are sitting without electricity and have been for four days, which is a hugely challenging situation for them all. We continued to meet NIE over the weekend to ensure that everything that can be done is being done and that NIE has everything that it needs to respond to the emergency. The storm has had a significant impact on NI Water assets, as a direct result of loss of electrical power or through damage to equipment. The most recent position, as of this morning, is that approximately 2,000 to 3,000 people are without water. Water teams were mobilised as soon as it was safe to do so and will continue to carry out repairs until all assets are operational. Generators have been deployed to various sites, and teams have been identifying and repairing damage to equipment as they reach it. Bottled water has been distributed at a number of leisure centres in impacted areas. That gives a high-level assessment of where things stand in those four key areas. Our response to the storm is very much a live-play scenario that we continue to work our way through, taking a multi-agency approach.

Thanks for that. We are increasingly concerned about that area. There are people who were vulnerable before the storm and people who became vulnerable during the storm, particularly four days in with no electricity or heating or, perhaps, access to a warm meal. There is a dedicated work stream to try to reach the most vulnerable in our society, and we are prioritising efforts to restore power to those homes. It is particularly difficult. That is why we are coming at it in a number of ways. We have our drop-in centres; I encourage all MLAs to use their platforms to promote those drop-in centres so that people know where they can go and what they can get at each of the centres. We are also asking the public to continue to be vigilant, as they have been, and to look out for vulnerable people. This morning, we have put it to NIE directly that we believe that there needs to be a goodwill payment to assist people to get through this period. We will continue to engage with NIE. The Department for Communities has stood up that response to work with councils to help to fund them to provide services in a localised way. We are particularly concerned about people with chronic health conditions, people who were recognised as being vulnerable and people who have become vulnerable. I assure you that there is a dedicated team working in that area.

1,233 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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