Fitzmaurice: People in rural areas still ‘left devastated' after storm
Deputy Fitzmaurice has highlighted specifically that in parts of Roscommon and east Galway, the communication infrastructure has not yet been fully repaired.
'Areas like Cloonfad, Ballymoe, and a number of other areas are left devastated and without phone lines,' the deputy said in the Dáil recently.
He has also pointed to the example of what has been going on in Creggs, 'where there are six communication lines for phones'.
According to the Galway-Roscommon TD, local people had to 'get a ratchet strap' and tie a pole back.
'It broke and they had to do it again,' he added, and said that 'the pole is still thrown there'.
Deputy Fitzmaurice is now calling on government ministers to 'put pressure on' and intervene to ensure that companies take responsibility for ensuring that the communications infrastructure in rural areas is repaired.
He has acknowledged that 'in some cases they have gone back and repaired the broadband', however, the Galway-Roscommon TD has stressed that this is vital because 'the phone line is a lifeline to the elderly people for when you need your panic button'.
But the TD has also asked that the 'communications regulator start taking the finger out to the likes of Éir because they should be ashamed of themselves the way they have treated the people who have been affected in that area'.
Deputy Fiztmaurice
Also in relation to the impact that recent storms have had on rural communities, the Galway-Roscommon TD has called for further action from government ministers in relation to ongoing forestry issues, particularly in relation to the 'huge amount of forestry' that has been burned.
He wants a timeline from the government on when a reconstitution grant may be put in place to help people who have 'lost everything'.
Deputy Fitzmaurice said: 'Whatever about the people in the windblown timber, at least they can try to cut it now and try to get it to sawmills, but where it has got burned, it is destroyed.
'You basically bring in a woodchipper and try to chip up whatever is there, but they have lost everything.
'In the coming months, when the government is doing the reconstitution grants, would it consider trying to include those people along with the windblown timber?'
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