Today, I want to raise an issue regarding frequent power outages in my constituency, especially for communities in Palmerstown and Clondalkin. Over the past 12 months there have been 11 outages in Palmerstown village, which have impacted an older population and initiatives such as Palmerstown meals-on-wheels. There were two outages in Clondalkin on Saturday affecting 4,000 households. I have been in touch with the ESB, and it has given me reasons for this but the broader point is the resilience of the network in that general area. As the Tánaiste is aware, Dublin Mid-West is one of the fastest growing constituencies in the country. There is a scale of building happening there right now and we need a resilient energy system and power grid. We need to try to minimise the frequency of these outages so that they do not impact initiatives, and residents and businesses as well. Could the Tánaiste turn his attention to that to see what we can do to increase the resilience of the network?

I thank Deputy Moynihan very much for raising this issue, which I can only imagine is causing significant concern for residents and businesses in Palmerstown and Clondalkin in his Dublin Mid-West constituency. On foot of him bringing it to my attention, I will speak to the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, who is the Minister with responsibility for energy and also ask that he engages with the ESB in relation to this. There is a broader issue in regard to our need and wish to invest more in our energy grid, and energy network. The Government has identified significant additional funding for EirGrid among others. It is important that the investment plan is put in place as quickly as possible.