Debate contribution: Storm Resilience and Infrastructure Preparedness

Debate contribution by Ms Diana Armstrong on 20 October 2025.

MLA

Ms Diana Armstrong

Party at the time

Ulster Unionist Party

Date

20 October 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Storm Resilience and Infrastructure Preparedness

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5188972

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I welcome the motion. It is undeniable that extreme weather patterns are increasing with devastating effect, as we saw at the weekend in Newcastle. My thoughts are with the people of Newcastle, who, today, are clearing up and suffering the after-effects of the destruction. The recent storms have exposed a critical weakness in our energy infrastructure that demands immediate attention. We would all struggle to name someone who, this year, has not been affected by outages caused by either storm Éowyn or, to a lesser extent, storm Amy. Our infrastructure was simply not able to cope, and many of us were left without electricity and broadband to operate businesses and farms and to communicate with colleagues and our loved ones. Many in my constituency of Fermanagh and South Tyrone were concerned in recent weeks when school closure notifications were delayed, leaving parents unsure as to whether they needed to call at the school to collect their children.

I thank the Member for his intervention. He makes a good point. I will come on to something else to do with NIE at a later point in my words. In my rural constituency, good infrastructure and planning are as vital as they are anywhere else, yet it is rural places such as Fermanagh and South Tyrone that bear the brunt of our infrastructure failures. The Economy Committee recently met the Utility Regulator, who worryingly confirmed how close we came to a Northern Ireland-wide blackout due to a single point of failure. Further engagement with the Utility Regulator by me and my colleague revealed that Coolkeeragh was offline due to maintenance, and Ballylumford was also offline, leaving Kilroot as the only fully functioning station, effectively making Northern Ireland wholly reliant on a single supplier. We quite simply cannot risk reliance on a single provider of energy. There will be concern in Northern Ireland around the vulnerability of our supply, as recent storms have shown that we simply have not been able to cope. Furthermore, when things go wrong, response times for maintenance have been inadequate. For example, we saw after storm Éowyn that some Fibrus customers were left without broadband for as long as three weeks. In a day and age when we all rely on the internet for working from home or communicating with family, that is simply unacceptable. In addition, the stability of our electricity supply requires urgent solutions, but time is not on our side. A fourth power plant would take five years to build, and the indications are that the North/South interconnector will not be ready until 2031. Lessons need to be learned, and we must not allow our energy security to be compromised by delays or over-reliance on a single provider. Additionally, in Northern Ireland, we have no framework in place for storm damage compensation, as the guaranteed standard of service for electricity supply typically does not apply during exceptional weather events. That means that not only did many face a loss of earnings as a result of outages, but they failed to be adequately compensated for their loss of electricity supply. That situation highlights the urgent need for clearer contingency planning, alongside the better coordination between Departments and agencies that other Members have mentioned. The Education Authority must also improve communication with schools and parents to avoid the confusion that happened during the recent storm and to develop mobile alerts for all schools, with urgent out-of-hours information going directly to the management boards of schools. We support the call for the First Minister and deputy First Minister to lead a cross-departmental review to improve emergency response systems and strengthen infrastructure resilience, thus ensuring that communities and essential services are better protected. We also call on the Minister for the Economy to provide assurances that vital public services will not be placed at risk as we transition to renewable energy. Northern Ireland cannot afford to be left vulnerable, so we must act now to ensure that our infrastructure is resilient against future severe weather events.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:35 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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