No generators for Leitrim ahead of storm season and councillors speak out

Leitrim councillors were dismayed to discover that generators will not be in place for the coming storm season after Cllr Gary Prior asked for an update on when three promised generators would be in place. "We are heading for November and in storm season," he told the meeting. 

Cllr Prior was told that the council was informed that three emergency generators will be allocated to each local authority and it is expected that the tender will be concluded by the end of 2025 and the generators will be in place by Q1, 2026.

Dave Minton, director of services, noted that when Storm Amy hit last week, the response saw over 140 instances responded to over 24 hours across three crews and emergency services dealt with 25 instances. "The response was really effective in Leitrim," he said. 

Cllr Ita Reynolds-Flynn described the news as "disappointing" saying that "it is an urgent matter and they should be in place for 2025; I never dreamt it would be 2026 and the communities have the hubs ready to go and every one has worked hard; they allocated the theatre here and all they really need is the generator."

Cllr Brendan Barry asked if the funding will be provided to the community hub groups "so that when the generators do arrive, will they may able to go straight into the buildings."

Mr Minton replied that funding will be provided to selected hubs to ensure all costs are covered for the installation of the generators. "The challenge here is that the procurement of the generator is being done nationally so there's a generic installation requirement for each of these hubs that has to be followed." 

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He added: "I'd expect the consultation to proceed now and the selection and fit out of the hubs to be ready forwhen  the generators are delivered and installed."

Cllr Paddy O'Rourke asked where Leitrim "sat, in terms of the pecking order, in the delivery of these generators because no county in Ireland suffered more than we did following Storm Éowyn and to a lesser extent, with Storm Amy."

He noted that Carlow County Council is acting on behalf of the Local Government Sector on overseeing the procurement process and commented that that part of the country was much less affected than Leitrim.

Cllr Roisin Kenny noted that she had no electricity for 15 days and said it wasn't "acceptable that we have to wait until next March; it's outrageously poor planning and I am not blaming Leitrim County Council at all; they have done trojan work."

Cllr Prior said there was a lot of anxiety out there among residents at the moment. "People are living alone and afraid of storms. A woman told me that she had a freezer in her garage and lost €250 worth of food and didn't apply for the Humanitarian Assistance Scheme (HAS). I told her that hopefully we will have generators in place. The community is not going to be forgiving on us as representatives on the ground; could we lease a generator or two?"

He added: "If we had a power point ready to go, it's not a big job or costly."

Cllr O'Rourke said that he is going to contact Deputy Dara Calleary as "this has to be done at senior level". 

Cllr Prior asked if the council could contact the department as a matter of urgency. 

Mr Minton said the generators are "heavy industry generators" and need to be installed in a precise manner. 

He said: "If we can get guidelines for the installation, we can look at alternative generators that can be installed as well as part of that process; for now, we need to make sure that we are installing the appropriate infrastructure into each hub in order to facilitate the national hub."

Mr Minton suggested writing to the minister expressing their concern around the national procurement. 

He added: "We can write to Carlow to see where we are in the pecking order for the receipt of the infrastructure. From my perspective, if we can get the guidelines for the installation requirements, that will allow us to respond locally as well."

Cllr Prior commented "this is something that can be done in weeks not months and we won't have these generators until March? A lot of young children and adults were without power for 16 days and we don't want to go back there again."