Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Defence Forces are available to be deployed at the request of local authorities. Local authorities, the Dublin Airport Authority, DAA, and many other bodies have snow ploughs and salt is stockpiled. Nobody can say whether that will be enough because we do not know the amount of snow that will fall, how long it will last or what blizzard conditions there will be. However, the equipment exists and the salt is stockpiled. It may be difficult, however, given the amount of snow we expect to fall and the conditions we expect. We must bear in mind that people's safety must come first. We are not going to send soldiers or local authority workers out in blizzards to clear snow. We must think about their safety as well.

The programme for Government commitment is being examined by the Office of Emergency Planning, but the difficulty arising is that having a rapid reaction force is not straightforward because all emergencies are different. A storm is different from a flooding event or a snow event or a chemical-related disaster. It is not as simple as just having a single rapid reaction force. One would potentially need a different one for each different type of emergency.

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