Sinn Féin MEP for Dublin Lynn Boylan has slammed the Tánaiste, Simon Harris, for trying to duck responsibility for failing to ensure people could still call 999 during a storm, despite her warning the government about shortcomings in the system over two years ago.

MEP Boylan said:

“It’s really concerning that people, particularly vulnerable people, were left unable to call 999 during storm Éowyn.

“Simon Harris passed the buck on RTÉ’s Clare Byrne show by insinuating that there was nothing the government could have done to make sure these emergency calls were still available.

“It has been over two years since I raised the issue of the need to have proper backups in place for people in the event of mobile phone networks being taken offline.

“In fact, EU law requires the government to do everything that they can to ensure that communications, particularly for emergency services, are kept intact during events like this.

“The government has sat on their hands for two years and they were caught out. Simon Harris is blaming the storm instead of taking responsibility.

“The questions I asked two years ago about how much backup energy is in place for the network still have never been answered.

“The ability to call 999 is one of the lowest expectations of a functioning society. The government’s failure to secure this basic service is unacceptable.”