Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

Within the emergency management framework structure, the lead Department for severe weather is the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government. Following that Department's review of the overall emergency response to last winter's snow, ice and flooding, 62 recommendations were made impacting on various Departments. Of the recommendations, nine directly affect areas in respect of which responsibility for delivering solutions rests with my Department or agencies.

The development of the resilience planning of my Department and agencies is an ongoing activity with lessons being learned and solutions being developed where feasible in response to specific experiences. The achievements of the transport agencies last year are being used as a base to improve their responses for the future further. As with all emergencies, no two are alike and there is no one size fits all.

Regarding the road network as part of overall transport preparedness, the National Roads Authority, NRA's, draft winter maintenance guidelines were published in October 2010 and provided a comprehensive framework for local authorities to plan standard winter maintenance, including a schedule for severe weather. Local authorities were requested to select routes in their areas for treatment on a priority 1, 2 and 3 basis where all three priorities would be regular winter maintenance routes, namely, some 18,000 km out of our 96,000 km road network, but reverting to priority 2 and-or 1 as a severe weather event extended. Historically, all the three routes constituted regular local winter maintenance practices and the introduction of priority 1 and 2 was to maximise, if required, access to essential routes in the event of prolonged severe weather events.

I understand the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government recently issued a circular to all local authorities confirming among many matters arrangements to be made locally in terms of grit, salt and sand plans for roads in areas not covered by regular winter maintenance. Local authorities have reviewed the selected priority routes in their areas for treatment on priority 1, 2 and 3 criteria and, building on last year's experiences, are catering for gaps that occurred, particularly in respect of county towns and suburban public transport routes. These routes are already or will shortly be published on local authority websites.

The route selection was supported by the NRA hosting two seminars this year for local authorities. I allocated an additional 10% - €1.25 million - from savings elsewhere within my Department towards the regional and local winter maintenance programme, bringing the total allocation to €11.25 million this year from my Department.

To ensure sufficient availability of rock salt, more than 200,000 tonnes have been procured and delivered and are now in storage around the country in time for the start of the winter season. The NRA was tasked with centrally co-ordinating the procurement of the salt supplies, but also leaving it open to local authorities to purchase additional supplies directly should they so decide. As a result, we will not be placed in the position that we were last year where we were waiting for shipments from the Mediterranean or further afield.

The level of salt will be topped up annually depending on usage to the 200,000 tonne level and has a shelf life of three years. Our salt stock allocations are 100,000 tonnes for use on the national roads network, 60,000 tonnes for regional and local roads and a strategic reserve of 40,000 tonnes for national and priority 1 routes. In addition, the public private partnership, PPP, contractors have made specific provision for their contracted sections of the interurban motorways. Some counties - Meath, Monaghan, and Roscommon - have purchased additional supplies directly. The cost of salt in 2010, including storage, averaged €80 per tonne. The cost of the early purchase-delivery this year averages €62.50 per tonne.

Our public transport companies have agreed with relevant local authorities measures to increase where possible access to those areas and estates on their networks that were inaccessible last winter. My Department's website, www.transport.ie, will continue to act as a portal for the public to access information from our various agencies. This morning, I attended the launch of the "Winter Ready Guide" for use by the public in preparing for this winter. The winter ready booklet, available on www.winterready.ie, gives information on being prepared, providing practical advice for coping during episodes of severe weather, as well as giving contact details of organisations and agencies that can provide guidance and assistance. The booklet was prepared by the Government task force on emergency planning in co-operation with many Departments, including my own.

The main message is simple - be prepared, stay safe and know where to find help should it be necessary. As part of winter ready week, my Department will publish on our website a severe weather transport information guide encompassing website details for our operators with web access and, for those without web access, their customer service telephone details. This guide will be electronically distributed to all media outlets, local authorities, Members of the Oireachtas, members of local authorities, Citizens Information and other outlets for reference purposes.

My reply covers what we are planning to do but, in many ways, does not address the issues raised by the Deputy. In fairness to my Department, his suggestion was not quite covered in the notice he submitted. I would be open to his idea, but it would need to be organised by local authorities, not my Department. Many people living in rural areas, including farmers, did that work voluntarily last year. We would ask people to volunteer, as we are not in a good enough financial position to pay people for this work. Were salt made available, they might agree to spread it on a voluntary basis instead.

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