John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

I am pleased to join with Members to debate the recent severe weather event which we all encountered in December and January. We should not forget those people who are still experiencing the effects of it, mostly through recovering from injuries received from falls on the ice or where there are difficulties with water supply. One matter on which I think we can all agree is that severe weather will disrupt daily activity and the key question is how we, as a society, cope with that disruption. We must also keep the disruption in perspective, especially the frequency and duration of its occurrence.

In assessing the Irish response, it would be useful to compare the Irish experience with other European countries where similar conditions and issues presented for the authorities and the public. The comparisons show that the disruption here was no worse, and in many cases much less severe, than most other European countries.

Significant traffic delays during snowfalls was a common experience across Europe. In this respect we kept the main arteries open with the assistance of the national co-ordinated response early in January, which ensured that salt supplies were managed to best effect. Airports were forced to close during snowfall in other European countries but only for short periods here, and where train services suffered limited delays here, they were halted in other countries.

To comment on the contribution of Senator Coffey, we managed the salt supplies. If one looks at what occurred in Britain, they had six days' salt supply; we had ten. We managed in a far better way than they did in Britain.