John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

That is a simple fact. Of course, we were lucky in the sense that all over Europe there was significant demand for salt and, therefore, it was very difficult. However, I can tell Senator Coffey that the national emergency committee co-ordinated that. We ensured that salt got to the areas where it was most needed and also ensured that we got our embassies onto it to get salt supplies from elsewhere. Rock salt was in very short supply at that stage.

In addition, it was not the case that the emergency was declared when Dublin was affected. The fact is that it became clear to us that the weather was set to continue, and that is what Met Éireann had said to us. Met Éireann stated as well that it would cause disruption, but at that stage people were back at work and school and that was the real difficulty. We had to deal with a range of issues such as electricity supply and diesel for engines. Senator Coffey spoke of people putting their hands up etc. Fair enough, let us go out there, get an analysis of what happened and see did we cope adequately. I believe that if one does so, the result will show that we did.

Let me explain the position about the arrangements for an integrated response to emergencies here. It is a principle that emergency response builds from the first response of the emergency services where the emergency event occurs, that is, the local units of the fire service, Garda and ambulance service. A response can be escalated from there as required, up to and including declaring a major emergency. It may be appropriate, when the situation escalates to an exceptional extent, for a whole of Government approach to be initiated in support of the local response. International experience is that emergency management should be carried out by people who best know the local situation and who are able to engage with individuals and community and voluntary organisations, who also play an invaluable role. This local co-ordination approach was very evident in both the flooding of November and the more recent severe weather.

During the period up to the start of the year, the main issue was accessibility of the transport network. Local authorities, I am happy to say, performed in a magnificent manner in keeping the main priority road network open to the public and the business community so that normal daily activity was able to continue uninterrupted. In the Dáil last week, there were assertions that the country came to a standstill. As we all know, it did not. This is due to local authority workers working over the Christmas and new year periods to keep the roads open. I take this opportunity to commend them for their work in this regard.

If co-ordination arrangements were not in place, then there may be a case for criticism of the Government. In 2006, the Government approved the Framework for Major Emergency Management. There followed, in the two year period 2006 to 2008, an intensive exercise in developing the major emergency development programme including both local and regional inter-agency development and training, which culminated in the adoption of major emergency plans by the local authorities, Health Service Executive areas and divisions of the Garda Síochána on 30 September 2008.

One of the points raised in the motion is the perceived lack of a national severe weather plan. We could argue or quibble over the titles of documents but there is a plan in place to deal with major emergencies including severe weather events.