 The final item of business is a business debate on motion 3646 in the name of Tess White on improving the disaster response to serious weather events. The debate will be concluded without any questions being put, and I would ask those members who wish to speak in the debate to please press the request to speak buttons now. I call on Tess White to open the debate up to seven minutes, please, Ms White. Deputy Presiding Officer, Storms Arwyn Barra, Malik and Corry were so severe that they tragically resulted in loss of life, and I know the thoughts of us all are with the loved ones of those who died. These major storms had a shattering effect on communities and especially rural communities across Scotland. The north-east in particular experienced profound and prolonged hardship. Households and businesses lost power for several days and could not heat their homes or premises in the depths of winter. Their connectivity was compromised because road and rail infrastructure were damaged. Their communications were cut off because they could not charge electrical items. Following Malik and Corry, the storm damage was so severe that Edzel was completely cut off by fallen trees. In Feta Can, sheltered housing complex Queen Elizabeth Court was without power for three nights. In Stonehaven, residents did not know where to go to access much-needed support. Such was the scale and length of the emergency that many of those affected became what the British Red Cross describes as newly vulnerable. By a certain point, everybody becomes vulnerable. I pay tribute to the extraordinary efforts of responders on the ground who operated in very difficult and complex conditions, whether that was repairing line faults to restore power supply or going door to door to provide welfare support. The voluntary and community sector was integral to the response, and every single volunteer deserves our recognition and thanks. I hope that others will consider signing up too. Although there was a massive operation to facilitate recovery, it was painfully clear that more should have been done to build resilience and protect communities. As we look ahead to the future, the Scottish Government's Storm Arwyn review is a step in the right direction. The six overarching recommendations and 15 action points highlight areas of improvement, but I strongly believe that it needs a delivery plan. It needs to have clear timescales for implementation before this coming winter. There also needs to be greater transparency around the resources available to local resilience partnerships to take these recommendations forwards. We know what the risks are without action, and those risks are simply too great if these recommendations are not implemented expeditiously. I have talked to constituents and businesses about how they were impacted by the storms, and I have held discussions with the British Red Cross and SSEN about the changes that urgently need to be implemented to better prepare people, communities and infrastructure for future extreme weather events. A key issue that emerged from these discussions was communication, both in terms of advising people what preventative measures to take to prepare for a red alert, and also what to do when the usual channels of communication are unavailable for prolonged periods. When the red alert was first issued for Storm Arwyn, there was no sign posted to the Ready Scotland website. It has advice for putting together an emergency kit, including wind-up radios and torches, but it appears that public awareness of this resource was and remains worryingly low. Equally many people across the north-east could not use conventional lines of communication to access vital updates about the developing situation, from which roads were closed and when to expect power to be restored to where to access support locally from risk centres and welfare vans. I agree with absolutely what she has said so far. Was she agree with me that the local radio stations could have played a bigger role in getting that message out, given that a lot of households would have had battery-operated radios and maybe they could be playing more of a role in the future in getting those messages to people? Gillian Martin makes a very, very good point. The radios and radio stations and in the 15 points of the six-point plan, it is very, very important that we deliver on those targets have specific, measurable, time-agreed plans so that they are all taken and effective before this winter comes, so thank you for that intervention. The British Red Cross has suggested that the Scottish Government should fund research with communities affected by the recent storms to understand how best to communicate in advance of and during emergencies. I do support this recommendation and I asked the Deputy First Minister to address that point in closing. Earlier this week I visited SSEN's headquarters in Perth, where I was briefed about lessons it has implemented following the storms. SSEN recognises, as well as the Scottish Government review and the interim reports from Ofgem and Bayes, that the estimated power supply restoration times during Storm Arwen were overly optimistic. This was deeply frustrating for customers trying to make informed choices about alternative arrangements, and many felt understandably let down and angry. I understand that SSEN has acted on this feedback and put a new process in place, as well as a £1 million community resilience fund, and it is for the north of Scotland and was launched in February. There is also been feedback from responders that trying to identify and provide timely assistance to vulnerable people was delayed by the poor availability of information and lack of data sharing between organisations. There is much greater scope for co-operation between key stakeholders in this area. The scale of human endeavour to help the stranded and hungry will stay with us in the north-east for a long time, as will the haunting images of the devastation in places like Chemnay, Feta Caern and Edzel, where forests were all but flattened. I was in Stonehaven after Malik and Corrie hit and I saw firsthand how much the community rallied together, but also how much better the response at a structural and systemic level could and should have been. Ahead of the winter months, people right across Scotland need to know that lessons have been learned and change delivered. They cannot go through this again. Before I call the next speaker, who will be Gillian Martin, I remind all those members who wish to speak in the debate to please press the request to speak buttons now. Ms Martin, up to four minutes please. I am really grateful to Tess White for giving us the opportunity to again talk about the implications of what we experienced with the storms that she has mentioned. I want to talk about storm arwin in particular. 26 November, I guess, was the high point of it. 19 full hours of 97mph winds and then subsequent seven days of power and sometimes water outage for many households. Those households that were without power, as Tess White rightly said, many of them did not know the response measures that were getting put in place. She rightly points to the communication methods that were used. I think that there was certainly the impression from quite a lot of people that I spoke to, including family members, that they were without power. They just weren't aware of where the food trucks were or where they could go in terms of hubs to get their mobile phone charged or to go and get a signal, but that didn't mean that those things weren't happening. There was an awful lot of response from volunteers, from Aberdeenshire Council, from the police and the emergency services and from third sector organisations putting in a great deal of effort to make sure that people could get boiling water, could get a heat or whatever. One of the things that I am very clear on in terms of the response is that I think that households in terms of their future resilience should be given an indication of where those hubs are always going to be in the event of any emergency. For example, Tariff Swimming Pool opened its doors, the community centre and the Swimming Pool opened its doors so that people could have showers and have hot water. If they are willing, they should be the hub for Tariff. I know that they have indicated that they would be. One of our local councillors and we were having resilience meetings and a wash-up meeting with Aberdeenshire Council, where Jim Savage, the chief executive and money man, retired and chief superintendent. One of the councillors came up with the idea that I was a throwaway thing, but that was a really good idea—a fridge magnet. A fridge magnet for your area, where you put in your fridge, where you put whatever and it has got a list of the places, the hub for your area. That is where to go in the event of an emergency, should you need it. We are not having to rely on people finding out where the hubs are. They are just arranged. That is always the place that you are going to be. Another thing that I want to mention is about vulnerable customers in the SSEN in particular. I think that the SSEN put out information that they had a vulnerable customer helpline, but I know quite a few people, including some people who needed medical devices to work, that they would phone the helpline, but it did not really do anything. What they need to do ahead of winter is to look at the people who have registered for that helpline and the people who have got in touch, and to start phoning them round them, and to find out why they think that they are vulnerable, what it is that they need, so that they can have an update list of who might need help should we have a situation like we had before. Let us hope that we do not. In relation to SSEN, there is a job of work that they have to do. I recognise everything that Tess White has said about funding and whatever. I really think that they seriously need to look at their infrastructure. We have power lines that, for example, trees around them are not being cut back. Of course, as has been mentioned already by Tess White, those trees are falling down and taking down power lines as well. I really think that they have to do a significant investment in putting those power lines in subterranean locations. I know that that is an expensive thing to do, but it is better than having households without power. I do not know how much time I have left because I cannot see the clock, but I will bring it to a close. There are a lot more things. The radio thing that I have already mentioned, I think that everyone should be recommended to have a battery operated radio in general in their household. I think that the local radio stations have taken on board my criticism that they could have done a lot more in terms of getting those messages out. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Thank you, Ms Martin. I apologise to set the clock, but I think that you were probably around four minutes. I would next like to call Alexander Burnett to be followed by Paul Sweeney up to four minutes, please, Mr Burnett. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I start by thanking my colleague Tess White for securing his debate and giving us the opportunity to address the response to what were exceptional weather events. That was not just for serious damage that storms Arwyn, Malik and Cory caused, but that occurred so soon after each other when communities were still trying to recover. Secondly, can I pay tribute to all those brave volunteers who supported their local communities from checking on their neighbours to helping to set up local hubs? The generosity of people during these times, as through the pandemic, has been inspiring. However, we should not need to rely so desperately on these individuals during emergencies. There is a significant lack of resilience planning, including, for example, creating dedicated local hubs. Some of this work is still not completed from Storm Frank back in 2017, and a five-year delay that this Government really should have been on top of. It is obvious that when storms of this magnitude hit, telecommunications go down, and even at the best of times, my constituency does not have reliable broadband, and sharing information often does not reach those who are most vulnerable, and for those who have signal face the issues of no means to charge their devices. However, I should commend SSC at this point for some excellent communications. Greg Clarke in their office deserves a special mention for tirelessly updating us and helping constituents who contacted us, and Aberdeenshire Council, who, after a poor start, adapted and significantly improved. Sadly, Scottish Water's response was woeful, and I hope that, given that they fall under the Scottish Government, something will be done to address that. During times of serious weather emergencies, we need to ensure that those who are vulnerable get help. I sadly heard from people who were isolated and had not heard from anyone for days, including one constituent who was stuck in his wheelchair for three days because the hoist could not be powered. Stucking a chair in front of a fire for that length of time is beyond most people's imagination and was certainly the most harrowing example I came across. Priority lists that have been mentioned were not being shared and consolidated, and visits from health and care partnership teams were not being communicated to others. Councils, energy networks, local resilience partnerships and the authorities must be able to collaborate in their emergency response. There are also some actions post-events that need addressing, and compensation schemes should be improved. Electricity companies claiming that restoring the power, not even long enough to boil a kettle, counts as a reset of a compensation timetable may obey the letter of the law, but certainly not the spirit. Another point around compensation is the inflexibility of the bellwind scheme. The cost to Aberdeenshire Council was over £950,000, but they received nothing. We would like to see some more discretion for compensation or at least some kind of sliding scale to support our local authorities. There are other smaller issues such as the ability to get codes for defibrators and the supply and reserve of generators for care homes, telephone masks and water pumping stations, and the use of unique property reference numbers instead of post codes, an area that particularly affects rural parts of Scotland. We await the SNP Government's detailed plan of action, but from the answers I've received so far, I've low expectation. I'm told that the National Centre for Resilience will not undertake a review. So can I ask of what value is this body based in Dumfries to my constituents if they won't review events like this? How exactly do they help communities? And what do they contribute to resilience planning if it's not to address the points raised tonight? Because at the moment it feels like every community council is having to reinvent the wheel with zero budget and only the briefest of guidance. Thank you, Mr Burnett. I now call Paul Sweeney to be followed by Graham Day. Up to four minutes, please, Mr Sweeney. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I thank Tess White for bringing this debate to the chamber. I also wanted to declare an interest as a director and trustee of the Glasgow City Heritage Trust. I think I note the points made in the opening speech about the immediate recommendations of the report into Storm Arwin and how important they are, but I think we also need to take a nice instance of some of the longer-term impacts and continuing effects of Storm Arwin as well, most notably in buildings that were damaged in that storm, as a particularly egregious case in Glasgow, which I've been dealing with over the last few months. On 29 January, hundreds of residents in the Park Circus area of Glasgow were evacuated from their homes due to damage sustained at the historic Trinity Tower building due to Storm Malik. There have been long-term concerns about the structural integrity of that building, but motion sensors on the building were triggered by the storm, causing building control in Glasgow to immediately attend and evacuate not just the building and the owners, but also the surrounding streets. There was a continuing period of impasse, which has contained to this day, in fact, residents not able to get back into their homes, uncertainty and a dispute between the council engineers at building control, as well as the owners' engineers about the nature of the repairs, what is required, and actually it shows that there is a lack of accountability and a lack of communication under emergency delegated powers when it comes to building safety and building control, which hasn't been addressed well enough in the context of these kinds of disasters. Suddenly residents can find themselves not just out of their homes, displaced for an indefinite period of time, but also these residents in particular are faced with bankruptcy because of the cost not only to repair the building, which they are in dispute with the council about the nature of, but also to compensate the other residents who have been displaced out of their homes because of the exclusion zone, so that introduces a serious challenge that we need to think of in the longer term, and I don't think that this report has sufficiently addressed that matter, and this is a case study that we really need to take seriously. Indeed, there has been efforts in this Parliament and in the Government to address this in a longer term sense and in a wider sense with the Built Environment Forum Scotland producing a series of recommendations in 2019 that would improve resilience of heritage buildings, and the aim was to establish long-term solutions that would aid, assist and compel owners of multiple ownership properties, particularly tenants, to maintain their buildings and have financial resilience in place to make up any shortfall that would require a sudden maintenance event like a storm hitting and unexpected damage. The legislation is going to be so, so slow, Deputy Presiding Officer. The projected report that the Scottish Law Commission is proposing is going to take until 2026. This is a decade after, or nearly a decade after, the recommendations, or at least the exercise to investigate the recommendations were set in place. The requirements are quite straightforward. A requirement for buildings to be inspected every five years, establishing compulsory owners' associations with sinking funds, and the establishment of building reserve funds. There are complex policy and legal issues, notably around interaction of proposed legislation with existing property titles and human rights concerns, but we need to move at much faster pace, Deputy Presiding Officer. We are going to address the major strategic threat that extreme weather events pose to our built environment and the subsequent huge effects that it has on people's lives when they are suddenly kicked out of their homes and lose that shelter and that basic fundamental right property. We need to look at what the Scottish Law Commission is saying. It is going to take until 2026. That is going to be way too slow. It is not fast enough, and we need to look at a way of increasing the pace. Sadly, it is an indictment on the level of importance that the Government is placing on this issue that we do not have enough rigor in approaching it. We have seen all too clearly as a result of storm arwyn, the serious impact that it can have. The Trinity Tower case is just one egregious example, but with 76,000 pre-1920 tenements in Glasgow, with an estimated repair backlog of £3 billion, that is only a problem that is going to get worse and more acute as time goes on. Let us get ahead of the problem instead of dithering for another parliamentary term. I now call Graeme Dey to be followed by Liam Kerr and Liam Kerr will be the last speaker in the open debate up to four minutes. I very much welcome the opportunity to explore the issues highlighted in Tess White's motion and therefore congratulate her on securing this debate. The lessons to be learned mantra was never more appropriate than in relation to the impacts of the storms that battered Scotland late last year and preparing this foreign response to these. If I was asked for only one thing to focus on in that context, then it is communication. The scale and nature of storm arwyn fell unprecedented. A household and that of many of my constituents had not found itself without heating, lighting and telephone like that before. The lack of heating and lighting for the evening of November 26 into the next day was of considerable inconvenience, but my biggest personal challenge, though being transport minister at the time, was having to drive around to find a phone signal in order to chair a transport system recovery meeting. That is not the communication issue that I want to home in on. We have, as a society, become utterly reliant on the phone and the internet to communicate and source information. When neither is available, as we discovered in the immediate aftermath of arwyn, there is a problem. Being told either to phone a helpline or check a website for updates on when power might be restored, or what practical support is available in your locality is of little real use when phones and internet are inaccessible. I have time, Presiding Officer. It allows me to make the point that, of course, the fact that the BT were going to make all the lines fibre and that we have had significant interventions down in Westminster from our SNP group to make sure that BT rolls back on the digital voice fibre roll-out because we cannot do without copper wiring if we are going to be in a situation like we were at the end of last year. Presiding Officer, there is an example of the lessons that need to be taken on board from this. The disruption in the inconvenience suffered in Cymru, where I have lasted hours, but in several smaller communities in Angus it went on for days. The response to that, though ultimately extensive, was still inadequate, especially in those early stages. Not every smaller community was aware, for example, of the presence of food vans in nearby towns from which they could access free hot meals and getting the kind of detailed level of information around anticipated supply restoration timetables was frankly a nightmare. I know, because, as the local MSP, I found it virtually impossible to get that for constituents who were becoming increasingly frustrated at the lack of news on when their home would again be warm and lit and when cooking a meal would become an option once more. That was problematic because, as a number have pointed out, had they been in possession of accurate information, they would have made different choices, gone to stay with friends or relatives rather than sitting tight and toughening it out, because the advice on how long they would have to do that for will either be impossible to obtain or understand away perhaps wrong. However, I know from subsequent discussions with SSEN that there is a recognition that the communication information was not what it could have been and that they are exploring how to get better at information and data sharing, which is obviously welcome. There are other questions to be answered, as Gillian Martin has noted, the dependability of some of the infrastructure for the power supply and whether we have to look at the proximity of trees to lines. Those are just two examples. Some of the settlements that I represent, which are far from being remote, still do not understand why they were so badly hit by Storm Arwin and again impacted by Barra, but I very much welcome the dialogue currently under way between SSEN, the local authority and some of the communities in my constituency, about how we make them more resilient to such events, what they might need to have available in the local village hall in order to provide a fully functional haven for residents if and when similar storms strike again in the future. For my distinctly local perspective, lessons are being learned and solutions are implemented. There were things that we got right in Angus, and I acknowledge the role of the council and voluntary sector partners in that. However, there were other responses that had very least need refining, and I am pleased that that is happening. I do not doubt, looking at the Scottish Government's review recommendations, that it is seeking to ensure nationally that we have learned from what happened last November and that we will be better prepared for future severe events. I look forward to perhaps getting a flavour from the Deputy First Minister when he closes the debate on what the planned update on progress, which is due next month, might contain. I congratulate Tess White on securing this incredibly important debate this evening. The impact of the storms across Scotland, but especially in the north-east, were devastating. Tess and many members have given powerful testimony throughout this debate. I think that it bears reiterating that what we saw on the ground were our local communities stepping up. Whether it was local businesses such as Caffe 83 in Cemne, taking hot drinks and soup to a care home, or the Shire Council setting up a welfare sentence delivering over 3,000 meals or carrying out 8,000 welfare checks. However, I want to make two specific points today. Tess White's motion flags that these weather events resulted in a loss of power for thousands of households, in some cases for a protracted period, over a number of days. She is right. The north-east had over 10,000 homes left without power for at least four nights. What we know is that the Scottish Government has a drive towards heat pumps as a solution, or one solution, to decarbonising homes. However, those are powered by electricity, which means that, during blackouts, as we saw in the north-east, the only reliable source of heat for many were things such as oil heaters and open fireplaces. I had innumerable constituents contact me expressing their relief that they still had fires or oil heating during the outages. The people of Scotland entirely understand the importance of reaching our net zero targets, but they cannot come at the expense of people's safety. If the Scottish Government is going to persuade people in the north-east to change their heat source, they are going to have to deal with the very real fears that people have of being left freezing in this situation. Secondly, I would like to pick up Graham Day's important points. Many of my rural constituents told me of their terror at their communications being cut off and with the increasing tendency away from landlines and the move to digital voice, people's mobiles are more important than ever. Gillian Martin probably knows this, but I know that he will be concerned to know that BT actually say on their website that, in the same way that your broadband will not work during a power cut, so you will not be able to make or receive calls using digital voice. That includes 999 calls, which is terrifying for people. Members have rightly talked about help lines being set up, but, after folk have run out of battery, they are in the dark about what is happening and how to get help. Several months ago, I asked the Scottish Government what planning and action it has taken to ensure that people who experience power cuts are able to contact the emergency services where their mobile battery has run out or that the landline is internet-based. In response, having blamed the UK Government, the Scottish Government went on to not answer the question. We still do not know precisely what the Scottish Government proposes for those who experience a power cut and are either dependent on mobile phones or the new digital voice. That is absolutely something that needs to be addressed in the contingency planning. The Scottish Government really needs to start taking responsibility for things like that happening in Scotland, not offering diversions to blaming the UK Government. Test White is absolutely correct here. It is beyond time that we started properly learning from these storms and implementing effective preparation and mitigation strategies, as a number of members have rightly suggested. We cannot hide behind statements that these storms are exceptional or unprecedented. We must do better. Local communities stepped up. It is beyond time that the Scottish Government does the same. I now call on John Swinney, Deputy First Minister, to respond to the debate on behalf of the Scottish Government, around seven minutes, please, Deputy First Minister. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. Let me begin by congratulating Test White on securing this debate on an important subject that has consumed a large part of my energy and focus over the course of the winter months, given the gravity of storms, Malik, Barra, Corrie and Arwin, and the close succession, which inflicted significant damage on our society. Test White and her contribution made reference to some of the scenes, which were scenes, frankly, of staggering horror in the damage that was done in communities such as in Edzel, a village that I represented for many years. I was stunned by the images that I saw of the damage to the natural environment around Edzel. In a sense, the scale of the impact in such a community demonstrates just the severity—that one individual example—of the severity of what was being experienced. I think that what that has to say to us is that we are in a different situation today in relation to the impact of severe weather incidents to those that we have experienced in the past. Generally, in my lifetime, I would say that we have not seen weather incidents of this nature, but the climate has been relatively benign. In recent years, we are seeing a significant shift in the climatic conditions, which is why we have to take the actions that we have to take on next year. Liam Kerr raises absolutely legitimate issues about some of the connections to some of the solutions that might be put in place, but I would point out to Liam Kerr that, certainly, if you are using an oil-fired central heating system, you do not have much chance of using that if the electricity is off as well, because it will be reliant on electricity to fire the boiler. I understand the point that he is making, but what does the Deputy First Minister advise to those who want to convert to something such as a heat pump but are afraid to lose the back-up of, let's say, an open fire? That is a slightly different issue to the one that I am raising about power systems, because there are inherent vulnerabilities in all electricity-fired power systems, which is the point that I am making that we cannot escape in this debate. There is a necessity for us to respond to significant weather incidents, and Mr Sweeney raises the issue of Trinity Tower, which raises a different element of the impact of those significant and acute weather incidents. Some of the issues that he highlights in that case raise the questions about the resolution of different professional assessments that go into particular cases of that type, which are very difficult to legislate for and, ultimately, have to be the result of dialogue, engagement and resolution, where we hope that there is good will to reach points of agreement. There are, of course, other wider issues that come out of this issue. One of the common issues that has come out has been the access to communications, and Graham Day made this point about the significant dependence that society now has on digital connectivity. That is an important observation, and the power companies have to respond to that by having in place better sources of information that are advertising information in advance of incidents so that individuals are better prepared. I recently—of course, yes. Thank you, Deputy First Minister. The Storm Ahwin review is welcome. There is a concern that it will not be acted upon by winter. Deputy First Minister, can you commit to having deliverable timescales in place before winter? I assure Tess White that that will be the case. The Government commenced Storm Ahwin when the review of Storm Ahwin was still under way. We have published the outcomes of that. There was a slight delay because of the other storms that came along, but that has all been published. The delay was only about 10 to 14 days. We published those outcomes. We are working with the Scottish resilience partnership. I hear Alexander Burnett putting everything at the door of the Scottish Government, which is entitled to do so, but the Scottish Government cannot direct local resilience operations. It would be folly to think that we should be able to do so. Indeed, Aberdeenshire Council would vigorously resist that, because it wants to be delivering local resilience in its community. There has to be a partnership approach that I assure him is the case between the Scottish resilience partnership, which the Government leads, and local resilience partnerships. We have to work closely with power companies. Mr Sweeney, if we are going for a moment, I will address this point. We have to work with power companies to make sure that there is better knowledge and resilience available to individuals. One of the ventures that I saw in my constituency just the other week there was in the town of Eileth, where Scottish and Southern Energy had used a community awareness day to bring along some of their resilience kits that they were making available, which included, by the point that Gillian Martin raised, battery radios. My household no longer has a battery radio, but I have now, after I went to that information event, thank you, I am grateful to SSC for that. I think that there will be precious few households that have battery radios nowadays. In the absence, because of our dependence on digital technology, having access to means of communication of that type is really important for people to be able to hear some of the information that is available. I will give way to Mr Sweeney. I just wanted to make the point that, in partnership and dialogue, would the Deputy First Minister consider consulting with councils and other stakeholders that have been affected by building control, applying emergency powers, where they declare a building to be dangerous? That has an incredibly onerous effect on residents. I think that that is little appreciated unless you are at the sharp end of that. In a democracy, it feels rather overwhelming. I think that there have been overzealous applications on what there is no room for discretion, no room for assisting residents in recovering personal belongings, even professionally or medically vital equipment, etc. I think that we need to have more a conciliatory and more cooperative approach going forward. Can that be incorporated into the study that the Government is doing on this? Mr Sweeney makes a number of very serious and significant points. I am aware from some contacts that I have of the disruption to people's lives that is still going on as a consequence of Trinity Tower. Let me take away those issues and I will endeavour to ensure that the Government uses its available channels to encourage dialogue to resolve some of those questions. There is one final point that I want to raise other than to reassure Parliament that the lessons that have been learned and the actions that are arising out of the review will be implemented is to talk about some of the preventative interventions that we can make. One of the strongest is in relation to the management of power lines around the country's appointment that Gillian Martin made. When I visited part of Gillian Martin's constituency to look at the damage that was done by Storm Irwin, the proximity of forestry to power lines and the impact of the damage that was done in the community that I visited, it was not one tree that had to be removed to restore power to a particular settlement. It was about a dozen separate incidents that had to be resolved to secure power connections, which is why the restoration took so long. The power companies have got to invest more heavily in removing forestry and folias to protect power lines so that they are not damaged by such incidents. Of course, we will face incidents of this type given the severity of weather that we now experience. I assure Parliament of the Government's determination to work in partnership with local resilience partnerships to address those issues. We will of course keep Parliament updated on the progress that is made in the months that lie ahead.