Storms and power cuts 'must prompt redesign of new homes', according to councillors

Cork county councillors have asked officials to reexamine house designs as newly constructed properties almost solely rely on electricity for heating

Mon, 03 Feb, 2025 - 19:14

Sean O’Riordan

The design of new homes needs a rethink to ensure that householders are not left without any heat source if they lose power during an extreme weather event. This call was made by local representatives in Cork who said lessons must be learned from the recent arctic blast which hit many parts of the county, and the increasing frequency of storms.

Cork county councillors have asked officials to reexamine house designs as newly constructed properties almost solely rely on ‘heat to air pump/air to water systems’ which are dependent on electricity.

Mayor of County Cork Fianna Fáil councillor Joe Carroll said this left people in some council homes in badly-impacted areas in North Cork without any heating when their power went out, in some cases for several days.

He is arguing that new homes should come with a back-up system in place which could utilise fossil fuel in the case of such emergencies.

Fianna Fáil councillor Michael Looney said a young family living near him in the Macroom area had to move out of their modern house as they had no way of heating it when the electricity supply was cut. He said:

There is no 'Plan B' for these houses. There should be a stove in them for emergencies. You can heat the house and boil a kettle on top it.

After serious weather events the council normally conducts a review of its actions and those of other organisations which feed into its day-to-day operations.

Fianna Fáil councillor Gillian Coughlan said the council should contact Uisce Éireann as a matter of urgency to rectify a failing which came to light during the severe weather.

“One chink in the armour is they have plants (water and sewerage) which don’t have back-up generators,” she said.

Meanwhile, council chief executive Moira Murrell said the local authority is compiling a major inventory of damage done to roads during the big freeze and seeking government funding for repairs, which are expected to be many millions of euro.

The worst impacted area was northwest Cork, where the damage was so severe the operators of “the two tyre centres in Kanturk” are the only people smiling after the snow and ice, according to Fianna Fáil councillor Bernard Moynihan.

He said even some of the more major roads in the region are in a dire state and so potholed it is causing serious damage to vehicles.

Calls to emergency services

Meanwhile, Niall Healy, who is in charge of the council’s response to critical weather events, revealed that for the first time since covid the local authority had reactivated its ‘Community Response Forum’ in the run-up and through the Red Warning for Storm Éowyn.

This is designed to provide community organisations with a feed-in to what the council and other agencies, such as the gardaí, HSE, utility companies etc, need to do for people, especially the vulnerable who live in isolated areas which may be hard to reach during serious weather incidents.

Mr Healy said the forum had now stood down and he could not say when it might be activated again. During the duration of that storm the council received more than 200 calls to its emergency line, the vast majority relating to fallen trees which had blocked roads.

However, Independent councillor Patrick O’Donoghue, who is based in North-East Cork, argued that the council needs to do more to encourage local community organisations and farmers to help out when there is severe weather, especially in isolated hilly areas.

Storm Éowyn: 45,000 still without power and 400 without water