Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

I thank the Minister for his wide-ranging reply. I agree with his point regarding front-line staff - whether they are employed in the area of public transport or the local authority sector - who performed miracles on a round-the-clock basis in seeking to ensure that services would not be disrupted. I cannot, however, agree with the Minister's statements to the effect that there was adequate preparation and that the response to the recent severe weather represented a great improvement on what happened previously.

What happened in January 2010 was a debacle. We had no Minister, no salt, no grit and no co-ordination. In the aftermath of last January's events, it was proposed that the NRA would provide salt to the various local authorities. The only other arrangement that seems to have been put in place was a commitment to keep the main roads open. That left a great deal to be desired. Adequate supplies of salt were not provided and, as a result, rationing occurred and local authorities were obliged to mix the salt with grit. In addition, supplies were landed in Cork when they were needed in Donegal. During the four weeks of severe weather leading up to and during the Christmas period, there was no indication that the authorities had learned the lesson which they should have learned following the events of January 2010.

Adequate provision was not made to keep the national transport system operating fully during one of the busiest periods of the year, namely, the Christmas holidays, when people travel into, throughout and out of the country. In the context of this year's review, is the Minister going to allow an emergency co-ordinating body to continue to operate or does he intend to put in place a national, planned structure that will be in a position to operate throughout the entire year? A structure such as that to which I refer should be ready to deal with events that were regarded as emergencies in the past but which are currently becoming the norm. Is the Minister merely going to continue with what is already in place rather than establishing something far more comprehensive in order to ensure that there will not be a recurrence of the events that happened in December?

See this speech in context