Debate contribution: Storm Resilience and Infrastructure Preparedness

Debate contribution by Mr Jon Burrows on 20 October 2025.

MLA: Mr Jon Burrows
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 5189022

Text

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. The motion is indeed timely, and debating it is exactly what our constituents and communities want to see us doing, which is deal with practical issues that have an impact on them, with less drama and more delivery for the people of Northern Ireland. The motion is very important. Before I turn to it, we should acknowledge the work that our emergency services and community volunteers do. Whatever else we do or do not do in this place, we often send out messages saying, "Don't make journeys unless they're urgent" and, "Don't leave the house", yet there are men and women who have to leave the house, because their journeys are urgent. They take a risk on our behalf, often at considerable danger to themselves, so I recognise them. What we need is an adverse weather strategy: one place to which people can go to see that the Executive Office has an overarching plan for how to deal with adverse weather incidents. End to end, that would make life for people in Northern Ireland so much better, because it would join up all the Departments and agencies and the 999 services so that there is a clear, robust and resilient plan to deal with adverse weather incidents. When we have such incidents, the same issues repeat themselves time and time again, and I am not convinced that there is a structured way of learning from each incident and continually improving our response to the next one. Any strategy that is worth its salt begins with preparedness. Let me give Members a simple example of what a strategy would deliver. There would be an ongoing information campaign for the public about how households prepare for adverse weather incidents. There are some very simple things that people can do, such as making sure that their drains and gutters are clear and buying from Amazon, or other providers, wind-up radios, power banks and flasks so that they can have hot water. When an adverse weather incident is coming, there should be something that we can pluck out in advance to communicate to people, such as, "In two days' time, when this hits, here are the five or six things that you need to do" and, "Identify two or three vulnerable neighbours or family members to check in with". That is the practical advice that should be got out there, and, because such incidents repeat themselves in a weather cycle, we could have it ready to go now so that it can be sent straight out when needed.
The public can then say, "Here is the kit that I need." I have it in my house — the batteries are charged up, and the torches are ready to go — because I am a bit of an anorak in that way, but the public need guidance.
That was the first thing about preparedness, but prevention is always better than cure. I do not want to get into the ideological debate about climate change, but I will say two things. As I said in my maiden speech, we are in an arm-wrestle, because we are trying to look after our climate in the long term and get things done in the short term. However, this is what is difficult to sell to the public: we talk about climate change when we are discussing flooding, yet they walk out and see a flooded street, and — do you know what? — the storm drain is not draining because it is full of debris. We cannot persuade people to change their lives, if we cannot clear the drains. There are simple things that need done across Northern Ireland, and part of the key to prevention is doing the simple things well, such as planting trees.
Yes.
It absolutely does, but you have to do the simple, basic things well. If you do not do that, you cannot get buy-in for the grand project on climate change that we are trying to do. It is unforgivable that those things are not done. Also, when anyone goes out walking after a storm, they see all the power lines that have come down, and they can clearly see that the trees had not been cut. They might think, "Clearly, if that tree was going to fall, it was going to bring a power line down". That simple stuff needs to be done, but it is not.
Yes.
Absolutely, and that is where we need that pragmatism to steer a course through the matter, which is, of course, what the Ulster Unionist Party does best.
Planting and trimming trees are the things that the public need. However, that would be driven forward better if people could refer to one document that shows the strategy and mitigations. Those simple things can actually help people when there are difficulties. An adverse weather strategy would affect every nook and cranny of what we do in public life. It would affect planning. You would be able to say, "How can the planning process make sure that planners or developers build more facilities that encourage better drainage and more solar panels?", because, of course, if people have solar panels and batteries, they would be less caught out if there was a power cut. All those things should be driven by one central strategy. Communication is usually where things go wrong. No matter what you do, if you do not communicate, it will be a failure. I will raise the issue of the Education Authority's communication about storm Amy, and I will do so without judgement. When we have problems, we need to have the mindset that we are looking for learning and solutions, because then we will not be so resistant to those solutions or defensive of our own Ministry or whatever. The Ulster Unionist Party came out and called for a debrief after storm Amy, so that concrete learning could take place. That has to happen after every major adverse weather incident. Someone needs to chair a meeting to ask, "What are the three or four things that went well, what did not go well, how do we distil the learnings, and how do we improve?". That is why we called for a debrief, and I am glad that the Education Minister is doing it. The communication also has to be up to date. Storm Amy is a very good example. A decision was taken at 8.00 pm that meant they were likely to call for school closures the next day, but the parents and schools knew nothing about it. Then, when the decision was taken at 8.00 am, parents and schools knew nothing about it. An email was sent, which sort of takes me back to the '90s. Someone typed out an email and pressed "send". That email might have landed in inboxes at 8.57 am. I have spoken to many principals, and the first thing that they do when they go into school might be to go to the school assembly or to the school gates with parents. They are not, however, checking their emails. That meant that, at 9.45 am, principals still had not checked their email, and then, suddenly, they had to do something.
Even if the decision that was made at 8.00 am had been communicated, it would have made a world of difference. That is why we have asked for a mobile communication system to allow, at one press of a button, the EA to communicate with every principal in every school to say, "The school is closing today". If that had bleeped in pockets at 8.00 am, there would have been an entirely different response. If you had a strategy, you could see in advance the things that you need to do. You would, for example, have a contingency and be able to say, "Well, if schools close because of an adverse weather incident, one of the things that you have to factor in is free school meals". I spoke to many principals — three in one day — who told me that children went without free school meals that day. In the busyness of responding to a late email, that had not been considered. If you were to plan in advance, that would be considered. If you had the email or communication earlier, the caterers would know, and they might make a packed lunch or whatever the case may be. One of the problems that I have when we plan for major incidents like this is that sometimes Departments talk about public safety. I am convinced that public safety is about risk aversion and moving a risk from yourself to someone else. I worry that the Education Department simply moved the risk from itself to schools. The reality is that, for many children, the risk went up, not down. Instead of being in a well-managed school, children were sitting at bus stops in the elements. Their parents were battling to get back from work, and the children were sitting out. I spoke to one child who did not want to go back to school in case they missed their bus, but their bus was not coming. They were probably at more risk than if they had stayed in school. We need leadership. We need an end-to-end adverse weather strategy that makes things better, prepares people, has prevention and mitigation and, at the end of everything, has a debrief so that we learn and keep improving our response. We should not get involved in ideological wars or a blame game.

1,597 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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