Mr. Seán Hogan:

Yes. The Deputy and the volunteers in the Glen of Imaal Wicklow Mountain Rescue have my full sympathy on that particular issue.

On clearing snow from roads, our national policy is that local authorities should engage with farmers and encourage them to clear roads. We saw this during Storm Emma and we did some detailed studies in some counties. The local authorities and their contractors cleared approximately 50% of the roads and in some counties roughly 50% of the roads were cleared by farmers using their own gear. That would be our approach in the policy. In particular areas, the local authorities have made small salt dumps available on hills and these are now in use. There have been improvements in many such areas since 2009 and 2010. We did not have enough salt in 2009 and 2010 to leave small salt dumps but we do now. The position has improved greatly as a result of this and the work done with farmers and the machinery available to them. We see this in all sorts of weather events. During the storms, for example, many roads were cleared by people taking out chainsaws and moving fallen trees. The local authorities will focus on the main roads first to ensure they are cleared and this requires a lot of work.

Deputy Casey also referred to the political aspect. From my perspective, the activity he described is not interference. It is more the case that we take our mandate from the political system to do what we do. It is always a balance but from working with various taoisigh over the years I believe this approach works well. The political system supports us and finds out what needs to be done, what Departments are needed, what is happening and if particular issues need addressed. It also gives us direct feedback. We hear very directly about the issues confronting people. Part of our role in emergency management is to pick up on emerging issues. Our political people are frequently among the first to pick up on issues. We are very glad of their feedback and I would not underestimate this aspect of the political dimension. It happens at local level with councillors in the local authorities and at national level with Ministers and other Deputies who provide us with a sense of how things are. If we get that sense, we can start to address the issues. If we carry on blithely unaware, we are missing the point. Part of good emergency management is picking up those emerging signals.