Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Kenny for raising this matter. It must have been a frightening incident for the people of Leitrim. I thank the Deputy for providing me with the opportunity to update the House of the current position.

I will begin by clarifying that the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is designated as lead Department for co-ordinating the response at national level to several scenarios including severe weather and flooding. The national director for fire and emergency management within the Department is tasked with co-ordinating the response to these emergencies. The director works closely with Met Éireann, local authorities, which are the lead agencies in the context of the response to severe weather events, Departments and other agencies. This is done in light with procedures developed over the years and set out in the document Strategic Emergency Management National Structures and Framework.

In advance of Storm Elin and Storm Fergus, the national directorate for fire and emergency management crisis management team held a technical briefing on Saturday, 9 December for all local authorities to provide the most up-to-date forecast picture of both storms from the Met Éireann duty forecasters.

Storm Fergus was named by Met Éireann at 11.45 a.m. on Sunday, 10 December. An orange status wind warning was issued along the west coast for Clare, Galway, and Mayo. Status yellow wind warnings were also issued for Cavan, Dublin, Kildare, Leitrim, Longford, Louth, Meath, Offaly, Roscommon, Sligo and Westmeath, with potential impacts of difficult travelling conditions and debris and loose objects being displaced.

Leitrim village, which is close to the borders of Roscommon, was struck by a tornado on Sunday, 10 December at 12.45 p.m. This was a high-impact sudden onset emergency localised to Leitrim village. Extremely high wind speeds caused structural damage to buildings, with further damage caused by flying debris affecting vehicles in the town. While four people suffered minor injuries - three were taken to hospital - thankfully no serious injuries were reported in connection with the tornado event. Prior to the tornado, intense lightning advancing on the leading edge of Storm Fergus had been affecting the west and north west.

The fire service arrived at the scene at 12.55 p.m., with appliances from Drumshanbo and Carrick-on-Shannon fire brigades present, and co-ordinated the immediate response to the incident with An Garda Síochána. The fire service incident commander at the scene described the incident as a significant emergency, with damaged premises, vehicles and dangerous conditions at a number of locations in the village. The fire service carried out a number of operations to make the scene safe, including securing buildings in advance of the further strong winds forecast due to Storm Fergus. The road into Leitrim village was closed overnight on Sunday, with local diversions put in place as local authority personnel continued to deal with the immediate clean-up and securing of the damaged premises. The housing section of the Leitrim County Council assisted affected homeowners with alternative accommodation. Emergency ESB crews continued to work through Monday to make the scene safe. I thank the responding agencies for their professional and prompt response to this event.

The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage has secured supplementary funding from the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform to contribute towards local authorities' exceptional expenditure directly associated with recent severe weather events. I know the Deputy welcomes this. This funding is provided to meet the unbudgeted costs relating to cleaning up and carrying out necessary immediate works, including exceptional overtime payments, the hire of plant and heavy machinery, the purchase of materials required for the clean-up and the hire of contractors associated with significant severe weather events. This is in recognition of the exceptional nature of activities carried out by local authorities in responding to these types of emergencies and the fact that the costs of these unprogrammed activities could not be foreseen in annual expenditure planning. This practice is considered a vital enabler of the local authority action providing the assurance that availability of resources is not a limiting factor in providing a very effective local response. I will reply in respect of insurance costs and other responses in my next contribution.

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