John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

At central level there was no unnecessary delay in responding to the emerging situation. From the second half of December, staff from the Departments of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and Transport were liasing with local authorities and the NRA and monitoring the ongoing situation.

Local authorities successfully responded to the severe weather demands up to the end of the year. They had staff out working throughout the Christmas period, unselfishly, including on Christmas day, to ensure main roads were kept open.

It was when the period of severe weather was prolonged, when business and schools were about to resume after the Christmas period and the possibility of a shortage of salt for the roads emerged, that the need for the National Emergency Response Co-ordination Committee arose. I convened the committee at the request of the Taoiseach in the first week of this month, before the position became acute and the need for convening the committee arose.

The committee oversaw the co-ordinated response at national and local levels and ensured that all statutory agencies co-operated efficiently and effectively and that any decisions required at national level were dealt with promptly. It is not a function of the committee to take responsibility from the Departments and agencies. It provided a forum for the exchange of information between the Departments and agencies concerned, oversaw the local level response, provided a forum for early decisions when a central government direction or decision was required and acted as a central briefing medium for the Government and the national media.

Having attended the National Emergency Response Co-ordination Committee, and in light of the interaction of the various Departments and statutory agencies, I am satisfied that there was an active and sustained response to the recent severe weather conditions by the local authorities and the other principal response agencies, with the support of the Defence Forces and co-operation of other statutory and voluntary bodies. It will be important to learn from the recent experience and, accordingly, a review of the emergency response co-ordination and inter-agency arrangements will be undertaken. This will assist in determining what further improvements can be achieved and identifying any relevant lessons that can be learnt from the experience here and in other European countries over recent weeks.

Several important issues arose including public transport, supplies of rock salt stocks, clearing compacted ice off footpaths, access to emergency services, water supply, electricity supply, school closures, and so on, but the main priority for local authorities was accessibility of the major road network.

To respond to some of the points made by Deputy Ring, the fact is that when it came to the flooding we were in a position to go down the country almost immediately, and I visited those areas worst affected such as Ballinasloe, Ennis - I visited there promptly, in fact, the very next day - and, indeed, Cork.

The point Deputy Ring made about sand is simply not valid. The emergency co-ordination committee looked at the prospect of using sand. In fact, we looked at every possibility. This was explained to the media at the time. The sand on beaches did not have sufficient salinity, and it would have had no effect. That was just not usable at the time and, therefore, we did not pursue that issue. All of that was looked at in detail. I, again, commend the work of everybody who sat on that committee.

There is one point to note. Perhaps I will make a comparison later, but let us compare our response to that of the United Kingdom. We had ten days' supply of rock salt whereas the UK had a mere six days' supply. Anyone on the Opposition side of the House may make these comparisons and I believe we would emerge from such comparisons very favourably.

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