It’s been 5 days since Storm Éowyn cleared after bringing winds of up to 183 kilometers per hour off the Atlantic.
133,000 homes are without power 5 days later. No refrigeration all week.
Because of our water system’s dependence on the grid without backups no water has come from the taps all week. Classes are still cancelled. Workplaces have been closed all week.
RTÉ reported ESB saying '3,000 electricity poles across the country must be replaced while 900km of new conductor cable must be laid over the coming days.’ Workers have been putting in dangerously long days in often very risky terrain to make up for the lack of numbers on the ground to help people in need.
GOVERNMENT FAILED
The impact should not have been this severe. Those worst affected are rightly angry about the government’s role in running down our preparedness.
Yesterday, in the south, the Taoiseach Micheál Martin visited an area with local Fianna Fáil TDs. He was on the receiving end of very clear arguments against the absence of funding for provision and preparation. Without water, the arguments and confidence from the Water Charges Movement was reflected as they challenged Martin.
People were quoted at length in the media dressing down the Taoiseach. They spoke about how the absence of water and electricity has heightened impacts on the disabled, elderly, children, carers and all those who can’t simply get up and drive away from the situation like he could.
STAFF HALVED OVER 30 YEARS
Storm Éowyn exposes the government’s the decades-long run-down in public service employment, specifically in the maintenance and provision of power and water services. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael governments have held back wage and pension increases quietly and gently gutting the numbers of workers who could and should have been serving in the emergency recovery efforts today.
Look at the numbers: In the 1990 ESB had over 9,900 direct employees to serve about 3.5 million people; today our 5.1 million (a 45% increase in population) have only 7,800 ESB employees to dig them out. That’s a 21% decrease on 1990 ESB employee figures. No wonder we’ve had to call for help to the UK and France.
We should have 14,000 workers in the ESB now. Government policy has run worker numbers down. That’s down to Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael strategy and the TDs who have pushed it through over the last 35 years.
The workers who struck in the ESB to maintain their conditions in 2021 warned of this. The Water Services Workers Ireland group who demonstrated in 2022-2023 were screaming for attention to the slow breakdown in services as well as promises about their contracts being broken. We really should Listen To The Workers and invest in these jobs.
THINK AHEAD, PLAN AHEAD, INVEST AND HIRE NOW
On top of not having enough workers, government's strategic failures to think ahead in terms of purchasing meant no generators were on the water sites. 80,000 were without water leading, as those affected have said, to a breakdown in basic hygiene. Utterly unacceptable.
With storms intensifying more frequently due to climate change, the need for government to get serious about their responsibilities to the people who live and work here is unavoidable. We need serious state investment in our infrastructure and the workforce who keeps it growing and going.
A government that put people before profit would build services up before the coming changes. Well done to the workers and well done to the people putting the blame where it should be. Let's not forget ever again.