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LAST UPDATE | 27 Jan
SINN FÉIN LEADER Mary Lou McDonald has written to the Taoiseach urging him to reconvene Dáil Éireann after storm Éowyn.
Around 100,000 people are still without water while close to 250,000 people are still without power across the country after the storm struck on Friday.
ESB say the vast majority of those impacted by Storm Éowyn will have their supply restored by Friday, however it expects that around 100,000 customers will have to wait until the following week.
Dáil Éireann is not sitting this week, as is normal practice after a new government has been put in place, to allow the new ministers get to grips with their new briefs.
However given the widespread disruption following Friday’s storm, Sinn Féin, the Social Democrats, Aontú and Independent Ireland have all called for the Dáil to get back to business sooner.
Minister for Transport and the Environment Darragh O’Brien pushed back on the calls, arguing this afternoon that people shouldn’t be trying to “politicise” the storm.
“No speech in Dáil Éireann is going to restore power or water or assist a community,” O’Brien said this afternoon.
He added that at a political level, the government is providing “whatever support is needed.”
“TDs must be given the opportunity to raise these issues and concerns directly with government and to engage on the responses and supports needed,” McDonald said on X.
In a statement, acting leader of the Social Democrats Cian O’Callaghan said it “beggars belief that, in the midst of this crisis, there are no plans for the Dáil to sit.”
O’Callaghan said families and communities are being left to pick up the pieces following the storm, which was one of the most powerful and damaging wind events to hit the country in nearly 200 years.
He said it is “critical” that the Dáil sits to discuss emergency supports.
Likewise, Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín also called for the Dáil to be recalled.
The Meath West TD said that despite the efforts of ESB and its staff, the reconnection of electricity is “not nearly fast enough”, adding that it is “incredible” that the Dáil is not sitting “at this time of crisis”.
“We have received so many reports of older people and people with disabilities living in homes without any power or water. Many businesses still can’t reopen. There is growing frustration amongst people at the slow pace of reconnection,” Tóibín said in a statement.
“The government is the administration of this country. How can the Dáil administer anything if it’s not sitting. How can TDs properly hold the government to account if it’s not even meeting?” he asked.
Independent Ireland leader Micheal Collins also called for the Dáil to reconvene and said the government had failed to prepare and respond effectively for the storm, leaving communities in “chaos”.
“Families are enduring freezing temperatures without heating, and essential services are disrupted. This is unacceptable,” the Cork South West TD said.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland programme earlier today, Minister for Social Protection Dara Calleary said that Taoiseach Micheál Martin is “very much” involved in the government’s response to the storm despite being out of the country currently.
Martin is in Poland today for the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
“He has to be at that ceremony, it is a hugely important ceremony,” Calleary said.
Calleary said the government is doing all it can do get people reconnected. He said he will be on the ground in areas across the west and north west today and tomorrow, and will be bringing a report to Cabinet on Wednesday morning direct from the areas affected.
“I can assure you we are not on holidays,” Calleary said.
“Rather than making statements in the Dáil, I will be on the ground getting direct experience.”
Calleary added that the National Emergency Coordination Group is meeting every day.
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Staff in NH and hospitals are no longer doing traditional nursing. They are meeting all of HiQA requirements alright , ticking boxes , filling forms. Meantime they don’t have time to care for the patient. Give me a nurse who will care any day of the week ..but they have been strangled by bureaucracy and paperwork. I’d rather see a rusty wheelchair with a happy patient in it than a shiny one with a patient left alone while a nurse fills out forms about them. HiQA has become like the Spanish Inquisition. W have lost something while endeavouring to be correct about everything.
Well said Helen. You hit the nail on the head.In HIQUAs eyes its paperwork and box ticking over real nursing care.
Absolutely right Helen. Hiqa focuses on it’s paper standards not the quality of actual care. Nursing staff have to spend their time filling out forms and covering ass from hiqa. Gone are the days of real care when buses could chat to patients check how they were feeling mentally and physically and care for the whole person. The hiqa standards are so extensive no unit will be fully compliant. I have yet to read a report where all standards had been reach there is always some nit picking. That way they create a job for themselves. In a time of public service employment and cut backs this quango has grown greatly. Money that could have been spent in service provision. It
All we hear about are the bad nursing homes
There are some wonderful nursing homes and my mother is in one of these
The Tara in bray
It is home form home and the staff are caring ,loving and go the full mile
All presided over by the wonderful owner anne Costello
Let’s hear a bit more positive reports
Otherwise people get scared
^^^There is a plug form an nursing home owner if I ever saw one……
But the message in the post is correct. There are allot of really good Nursing Homes out there. Unfortunately we only hear the horror stories.
Also instead of putting all the blame on the Director of Nursing/Matron(as HIQUA seem to do) the nursing home owners must be held accountable also.
@Phyllis
Care staff are not allowed to ‘care’ as they would
like to as they have targets,paperwork,no beds and middle
managers to deal with.Nobody goes into nursing wanting to
take patients around a hospital on commodes.
My grandad has been in a nursing home for almost 2 years due to Alzheimers it would be impossible to care for him at home. The work the nurses and carers do is truly commendable, due to budget cuts and pencil pushers demanding paperwork etc. it is impossible for the staff to care for each individual patient that the way they would want to and should be cared for!
I visit my grandad twice a week both times when he’s getting one of his meals, the staff are running back and forth trying to make sure each patient has a meal, there are 12 patients in my grandfathers ward that can’t feed themselves my grandad included there will be max 2 nurses on duty and 3-4 carers, they are doing their best in stretched situations.
Reports like this annoy me, they cost money and don’t help anyone, often make it appear that residential staff don’t care and fail to help anyone!
Those pen pushers and whoever makes the decisions to cut back would want to realise if they are lucky to reach old age that’s what’s ahead for them.
@Row-Sheen: So what are we to do? Are you suggesting we should ignore reports of elder abuse? Really? What if it were you being wheeled around with your underwear down? Just because you have had a good experience does not mean that others have had and it is critical to highlight incidences of this nature so as to acknowledge that they are unacceptable.
What has happened to ‘care staff’ that allows them to treat their patients in this awful manner :(
Places don’t have enough staff too manage?
Few years in a nursing home costs hundreds of thousands of Euro and the state pays for it. The more old people the greater the strain on the system.
What do you suggest then, euthanasia? No matter what the cost to the state for their accommodation, the cost of preserving their dignity is zero. These are the people who gave us the state to begin with.
@David Burke the HSE nursing homes are understaffed, too much emphasis on forms and bureaucratic nonsense which results in time taken from the nurses in providing care to the residents.
With regard to payment I am afraid that you are incorrect in assuming that the state picks up the tab. The HSE will recoup as much as they can from the patient. After assessment the HSE will take 80℅ of the weekly pension plus 7.5℅ per annum of any assets held. You are allowed to keep the first €36,000. The HSE will then provide a loan to cover the balance which is recouped upon your death.
Eg: savings €36,000 (not counted)
Value of assets €100,000
Pension €248 pw
248 x 80% = 198.40
100,000 x 7.5℅ = 7500/12 = 625
625 + 198.40 = a weekly contribution of €823.40
I know this as I was in the unenviable position of contemplating this type of care for my terminally ill mother. I have since decided to care for her at home under the palliative care system.
http://www.hse.ie/eng/services/list/4/olderpeople/nhss/nhss.html#fin
Yet another appalling indictment of the treatment of the most vulnerable. Will anybody be held to account for this? I very much doubt it.
I think the nurse in question will…
These problems and issues are a direct result of cuts and staff shortages. Before the recession, on a 31 patient ward, there were 4 staff nurses and 2 care assistants. Now there are 2 staff nurses and 1 care assistant. How are they expected to feed the dependant patients at meal times AND do the drug round at the same time when there is no staff. Nurses are doing their best and all they receive from from HIQA is criticism instead of a ‘we know you’re stretched to the limits but we know you’re doing the best you can’.
The drive to the bottom for costs is behind this. Owners have to absorb increasing costs to maintain their profit levels and think they can do so by cutting staff costs. A real acandal is the homecare system where staff t&c’s are being hacked to boost profits while taking in donations of food from multi national shops that are wholly unsuitable for their clients. Anything to save another euro by those on already bloated, unjustified salaries
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