Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North, Fine Gael)

Yes. We had a flooding crisis before Christmas and a big freeze before and after Christmas. The Defence Forces should have been ready without even being asked to go out there. As the person in charge of the Office of Emergency Planning, the Minister for Defence sat on his hands while this whole crisis dragged on. His response was reactive in the end, rather than proactive.

There is a commitment on the website of the Office of Emergency Planning that a framework would be drawn up for weather emergencies to ensure that all existing local severe weather plans are appropriately co-ordinated and linked. I asked the Minister on a radio programme one evening if this was in place. He did not know the answer that evening, and I can accept that. Can he confirm today that this framework is now place? If we have a recurrence of severe weather conditions in 2010, can the Minister confirm that there will be a different response than that which we recently experienced?

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