John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

We got approximately 3,000 tonnes of salt from Carrickfergus. I must complement the Department of Foreign Affairs and others who were engaged in this process. We managed to access salt from all over Europe. Our embassies were engaged in this process. I attended a ministerial Council meeting at the weekend and I am aware that our Spanish embassy was involved in accessing salt. Salt supplies were a problem across Europe. I spoke to my ministerial counterpart in Germany who told me that Germany had a problem in this respect. This is a country which is used to heavy snowfalls and gets severe weather during the winter period, yet it were struggling during this period.

I want to comment on what the Minister of State, Deputy Finneran said earlier. This was a whole of Government response, including dealing with the homeless.

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