As the country is recovering from and absorbing the impact of Storm Ophelia, I take the opportunity to offer my sympathy to the families of those who lost their lives - Clare O'Neill from Waterford, a cancer nurse, who was driving her mother home; Michael Pyke from Cahir who was attempting to clear the road for his neighbours, and Fintan Goss who was on his way home to his family - all of whom lost their lives so tragically. Their deaths illustrate the serious nature of the devastating storm and the importance of the work of first responders and the national emergency co-ordination group, chaired by Mr. Sean Hogan. I pay tribute to them and Mr. Hogan who calmly and diligently, with all those involved, worked to protect the people and minimise the damage, above all, to them and, secondly, to property. First responders deserve great credit - members of An Garda Síochána, fire service personnel, members of the Army and Civil Defence, as well as the ESB and, particularly, local authorities, local councils, which co-ordinated the emergency efforts at county and local level, again to minimise loss of live and damage. The national broadcaster, RTÉ, with TV3, local radio stations and the media, played a very important public service role in disseminating information to the public at large. Above all, Met Éireann played a very important role. It nailed it in its forecasting in advance of the storm and its work throughout to keep people briefed. If any organisation deserves substantial resources from here on, it is Met Éireann. I put it to the Taoiseach that this needs to happen.

In the light of this, I ask the Taoiseach to ensure a comprehensive evaluation of our preparations for and response to Storm Ophelia will take place. That is important when an event of this magnitude occurs. We know that ESB crews are out bravely restoring power to people's homes. Water supplies and so on are also being restored. I also ask that a national audit be undertaken by the local authorities. Will the Taoiseach initiate such an audit in the context of providing ring-fenced funding to deal with damaged and dangerous trees? Many communities and pensioners will not be in a position to fund the cutting down of dangerous trees, of which there will be many around the country because of the impact of the storm.

It would be useful to undertake a comprehensive audit of the response and ring-fence funding, in addition to ordinary local authority funds, to undertake that comprehensive work.

Yesterday's storm is a reminder that the Atlantic is warming and that the frequency and intensity of storms such as this will increase. I do not wish to be political in the context of the national effort which was made, but Ireland is not meeting its climate change targets and we must step up our efforts significantly to respond to them.

Is the Taoiseach interested in working with other parties in this House to review legislation to make it an offence to disobey safety warnings during a major weather event such as this? There was a lot of anger yesterday that the lives of first responders had been put at risk by needless activity. It is important that, as the Legislature, this House shows cause by protecting first responders and creating a far greater awareness of the dangers inherent in such reckless activity.

It is always possible to learn lessons and strengthen future responses in the case of a national emergency. Today the Cabinet decided that it would undertake a full evaluation of our response once the clean-up was complete and power and water had been restored to everyone in the country. It will take place prior to the next meeting of the Office of Emergency Planning in November.

I very much agree with the Deputy's sentiments about people disobeying safety warnings. Not only did those who disobeyed safety warnings put themselves at risk, but they also risked the lives of members of the emergency services. There were two incidents yesterday which almost cost the lives of members of the emergency services and we were close to many more fatalities than were suffered yesterday. It was the worst storm to hit Ireland in 50 years or more. It was the first time there was a national alert which was declared on Sunday, 15 October at 1 p.m. As the Deputy noted, the storm did take three lives, those of Clare O'Neill, Fintan Goss and Michael Pyke. Everyone in the House offers his or her condolences to their families, friends, communities and all those grieving today.

What I witnessed on Sunday and yesterday was public service at its very best. We can all be very proud of the public service today. The national emergency co-ordination centre and the national emergency co-ordination group worked very well. I extend my particular thanks to the staff who all continue to work from Kildare Street today, the emergency services, local authority staff, the staff of Departments, Met Éireann, the transport companies, health service staff who worked extra shifts and often covered shifts for others who were unable to get to work, the Defence Forces, volunteers, including those in Civil Defence and many others. Decisions were made swiftly and communicated well. As a result the loss of life and limb was minimised. Today the clean-up is under way; roads are being made passable, while homes and businesses without power are being reconnected. Some 170,000 homes and businesses have been reconnected since 3 p.m. yesterday. There are 6,700 staff and contractors on the ground assisting in the clean-up and making repairs.

This morning's Cabinet meeting discussed routine business and also Storm Ophelia. The Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, updated the Cabinet on this morning's meeting of the national emergency co-ordination group which he had attended on the Government's behalf. We have informed local authorities that they will receive additional resources to enable them to continue with the clean-up and that the provision of additional resources needed for road and infrastructure repairs will be considered in the normal way once they have been assessed and costed. The Defence Forces remain available to assist and aid the civil power on request.

Some 515,000 homes and businesses remain without power. By tomorrow morning all will have an indicative date for reconnection. Most will be reconnected within three to four days, but in some cases it may take up to ten days. Extra crews are coming here from Britain, Northern Ireland and France. I ask people to bear in mind that it is highly specialised work which cannot be done by anyone, only by trained staff and we must always ensure their health and safety.

Schools will reopen tomorrow when school buses will run as normal. The national emergency co-ordination group will continue to meet.

When it comes to water supplies there are about 80,000 homes without water, but tankers are being deployed as necessary in areas where water is not available.

I thank the Taoiseach for his reply, and I welcome the fact a comprehensive evaluation of the preparations and reaction to storm Ophelia will take place to inform future practice and future behaviour in what will become a pattern over the next number of years in terms of the frequency and intensity of such storms. I referenced a specific project in terms of eliminating dangerous trees. It is an important issue as traditionally there can be a patchy response and some councils are better than others. Some households are not in a position to respond and an opportunity could be taken now to do a once-off national audit and assessment and intervention on the specific issue.

There is a good article this morning by Harry McGee in The Irish Times on the draft national adaptation plan and the need for the State to step up its investment in adaptation to prepare for such storms and their impact. This will need investment. When will the plan be finalised? It is important in the budgetary and Estimates context that not only is it published but that work is undertaken on delivering it. It is important in terms of preparation for future storms.

We are on target to miss our targets, if the House will excuse the pun, by 2020. This does not reflect well on us as a country. If anything, this storm, notwithstanding many sceptics, some in this House and elsewhere, shows there is an issue we cannot shirk any longer as a nation.

With regard to the dangerous trees, it is a very valid point and I will certainly ask the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, to engage with the County and City Management Association to see whether there is merit in a special programme to assess and remove some of the trees that may pose a danger to the public in future. The national mitigation plan on climate change was published-----

The adaptation plan.

I do not have a date for the publication of the adaptation plan, but the mitigation plan was published a month or two ago after a special meeting in Celbridge. In terms of our response to climate change, Deputies will be aware of the budget announcements yesterday, which included provision for special incentives to encourage more people to use electric vehicles, additional funding for cycling infrastructure throughout the State, funding for the Minister, Deputy Naughten, to bring in the renewable heating initiative to move towards renewable heat, and, by the end of the year, he will bring in price supports for other forms of renewable energy so we can increase the amount. The ten year capital plan will, of course, have to take into account the need to adapt to climate change, for example, electrification of some of our railways and other such investments and further investment in flood defences and other such adaptions, recognising the fact that while we cannot put any one storm down to climate change it is a scientific fact that we will see more storms and more severe weather events in the years ahead so we need to prepare for them.