Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North, Fine Gael)

There was no national framework co-ordinating local plans. The Minister claims that we were not ready for this. The Met Office can accurately forecast eight days ahead, and it even forecasted ten days beforehand that there would be a crisis. Nonetheless, the Cabinet did not meet until 7 January. There was a crisis for ten or 12 days before that. We were snowed in on Christmas Day in Kerry, as were people in other parts of Ireland. It was well signalled, yet the Minister and his colleagues sat on their hands.

The Minister spoke about local authorities not acting. They did not act because they were not directed.

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