Member's statement: Storm Éowyn: Front-line Workers

Member's statement by Ms Emma Sheerin on 28 January 2025.

MLA

Ms Emma Sheerin

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

28 January 2025

Type

Member's statement

Business

Members' Statements

Heading

Storm Éowyn: Front-line Workers

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4763556

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I pay tribute to all our front-line workers who have carried us through a very difficult period since the weekend's storm. I was lucky enough to be safe and warm in my house on Friday so the wind did not knock me off my feet. However, I was blown away by the number of messages that I was receiving from very early on Friday — from 6.30 am and 7.00 am — from domiciliary care workers in my area whose main concern was not their own safety but whether the roads to their clients were clear so that they could carry out their daily visits. The concern and care that they exercise for the people whom they look after is overwhelming. Those people are the salt of the earth. Our domiciliary care workers are already overworked and underpaid, and they need to see an uplift in their pay to reflect that. The effort that they went to in order to keep others — the most vulnerable in society — looked about, was a sight to behold. I also acknowledge the hard work of our NIE staff, including those who handle calls and respond to messages from ourselves, trying to keep us updated; and, obviously, the engineers, the linesmen and the men and women on the ground who are trying to fix the electricity faults across the North. That effort is, obviously, going to continue for the rest of the week and, indeed, into next week. They work in incredibly challenging conditions, with the wind and rain beating off them, and go for 12, 14 and 16 hours at a time without proper sleep or food. They are deprived of all those things but are still trying their hardest. I extend my gratitude to those people and to the people who work in our hospitals and our local shops, cafes and restaurants that have been providing shelter, heat, electricity and warm water to constituents who have not had those services in their homes. As of today, I still have constituents who do not have running water or electricity. I extend my appreciation to those people for the patience that they have shown, even in trying to get updates. I acknowledge how appreciative they have been of our efforts to try to get the issues resolved for them. This has been a challenging time for people. The community has come together in a way that is brilliant to see in circumstances in which, obviously, none of us wants to be. I place on record our appreciation to all those people who are trying to take us through this difficult time. Hopefully, the next time that we have a situation like this, weather-wise, in the North, we will have infrastructure that is better able to support our rural residents in particular.

468 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:52 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

Disagree with this assessment?

Classifications can be challenged. A person reads every challenge, and any change is recorded publicly above with its reason.

Challenge this classification