Comments by ESB Chief Executive Paddy Hayes that the costs arising from Storm Éowyn will be passed on to customers have been described as "inappropriate" by Minister of State Jerry Buttimer.
Earlier this week, Mr Hayes told RTÉ's Today with Claire Byrne: "It's likely that those charges which are allowed there will find their way back into the overall cost of our distribution network."
Speaking in the Dáil, Minister Buttimer said such a comment was inappropriate and Mr Hayes should "reflect" on what he said.
Social Democrats TD Rory Hearne condemned the Government's "botched response" for having failed to take the emergency seriously.
Vulnerable people in the west were not contacted by the Health Service Executive, he said.
Sinn Féin's Louise O'Reilly said she enjoyed watching Government deputies "throwing their hands up in the air" as statements on Storm Éowyn concluded.
She praised emergency responders, who had worked in "absolutely appalling circumstances".
But she said the Government failed in its duty to uphold the "threshold of decency", and called on ministers to accept responsibility for that.
Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín described the lack of "a senior minister" at the debate as "shocking".
The west and the midlands were hardest hit, he said, adding these places are neglected by the Government.
Solidarity-People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett urged for supports to be paid directly to those in need, as happens in Scotland, rather than making them go through "the rigmarole of a community welfare officer".
Minister for Communications Patrick O'Donovan acknowledged that many areas in the north and northwest remain without power, with repairs having been "hampered by the complexity" of the task.
However, the Fine Gael TD insisted there "are no resources being withheld".
Minister of State Michael Moynihan said "massive" lessons need to be learned from the "bruising experience" and said that all sporting clubs and utilities should be equipped with generators, a suggestion made by many others during the debate.
His Fianna Fáil colleague, Brendan Smith, urged for a protocol to be put in place to ensure that statutory agencies know who is vulnerable and those who should be contacted in such an event.
He acknowledged GDPR concerns, but said the matter needs to be addressed at a national level before the next storm hits.
Eamon Scanlon, also of Fianna Fáil, said that elderly people were without electricity for 15 days and concluded that the country was clearly not prepared to deal with Storm Éowyn.
"There's no doubt about this. This is going to happen again," he said, and suggested that grants be made available to allow those in forested areas to buy generators before the next storm.
The Dáil also heard calls for a full inquiry into how the damage caused during Storm Éowyn was handled.
Fine Gael TD Brian Brennan praised the actions of communities and emergency responders, but said the response to the storm was reactive.
It follows earlier comments from Labour leader Ivana Bacik in which she echoed Minister Buttimer's Dáil comments on remarks from the ESB Chief Executive.
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She said "very serious concern" was raised when Mr Hayes warned that costs will rise due to the storm's damage to infrastructure.
Speaking on RTE's Morning Ireland, she said it must be ensured that "the ESB does not pass on the costs of repairs to consumers".
There are "many, older people, people with small children who are so desperately impacted by this", she said.
Ms Bacik said it was already known that better resilience needed to be built into the country's infrastructure and said there needs to be a "new extreme weather event assistant scheme".
