Several small communities in Connemara are still being impacted by the fall-out from Storm Éowyn – five months after the severe weather event caused serious structural damage and widespread power outages.

That’s according to Galway West Deputy Mairead Farrell who raised the matter in the Dáil – expressing her disappointment that there was no Government plan on how to deal with the infrastructural deficit that, she said, had had a huge impact across Connemara.

Deputy Farrell said that there had been consistent power outages since Storm Éowyn – even in May and June – across various pockets of Connemara which continues to cause a lot of distress.

“The problem is that since Storm Éowyn there have been consistent power outages, even in May and June. I regularly hear on Raidió na Gaeltachta and from constituents about people who have no power for twelve hours at a time during the summer months,” she said.

“There have been consistent power outages. One woman who lives in the Ballyconneely area contacted me this week. Her power has gone ten times since October. It is not just her electricity as her water is impacted because the pump needs power to operate. She has no water when there is a power outage.

“After Storm Éowyn there were clear calls for generators to be put in place at those water pumps. Does the Minister of State know what the story is with that? Obviously, people being without water is a serious issue. That kind of thing cannot continue,” Deputy Farrell added.

She went on to highlight a situation regarding a family who live outside Oughterard. They were 95 days without a phone line after Storm Éowyn.

“The most shocking of all was an email I got from a woman last Friday. She is trying to help her elderly neighbour. This man lives alone in a very rural part of Connemara and his phone line has only worked for three weeks since last November,” she said.

“The phone is a lifeline for somebody like that. We are talking about people who have panic buttons not being able to use the panic button or a phone. She told me there are six houses on the road and an awful lot of elderly people living on that road and their panic buttons are not working.”

She said on that same road during Storm Éowyn, residents had the unacceptable experience or not being able to dial the 999 emergency service.

“Among these six houses there was a woman who needed an ambulance and oxygen. Her neighbours had to travel to get a mobile phone signal so they could ring an ambulance,” added Deputy Farrell.

She went on to say that issues continue to affect an awful lot of people across Connemara but there does not seem to be any plan in place to fix them.

“We also have health centres that are still losing their phone lines. If a health centre does not have a phone line, there is no way of contacting the hospital or an ambulance in the case of a health emergency.

Minister of State for Housing and Local Government Christopher O’Sullivan responded by saying that a request has been made that ESB Networks develop an Enhanced Winter 2025 Grid Resilience Plan as a key measure to be implemented in the lead up to next winter 2025.

He went on to say that the plan is to enhance the resilience of the grid in the most vulnerable locations for the upcoming winter. The ESB Networks Winter 2025 Grid Resilience Plan, he added, sets out actions across several key areas.

“These include the removal of hazards, post-storm inspection of the electricity network, forestry management, replenishment and expansion of stocks of materials and spares and resourcing and innovation measures that will build resilience in the electricity network for the winter ahead.

“The major cause of service outages in the aftermath of Storm Éowyn was the result of cascading impacts mainly emanating from the lack of electricity supply to power the network communication networks.”

Pictured: Deputy Mairéad Farrell.