Dominic Hannigan (Labour)

On behalf of my colleagues I thank Senator Coffey for tabling this motion on our national and local response to the incredibly harsh and unusual conditions we experienced over Christmas and the first two weeks of January. I start by acknowledging the enormous local and personal effort that went into combating the most severe effects of the weather crisis. In my constituency all outdoor employees, especially those responsible for gritting primary roads, put in a mammoth effort for the duration of the crisis. They worked extremely long hours in very difficult conditions. On Christmas Eve a gritting team was out in my constituency treating the roads at 2.30 in the morning. This House must recognise and commend those efforts by public employees. That does not always happen. I have nothing but praise for the work and effort put in by my local authority.

Rather than going down the route of political blame, it would be helpful to have a constructive debate and conversation about what went wrong and what worked. Some parts of the country performed better than others although all parts showed tremendous effort. Perhaps in some parts the results of those efforts were greater. Many of the problems were beyond the control of the authorities. We can learn about how a more effective response can help in future situations.

There is a significant aftermath from the weather crisis. Senator Glynn mentioned road conditions which are appalling on non-national routes. Something must be done. We may hope not to see this situation again in our lifetimes but the Minister must react to the current condition of our roads because they are extremely dangerous and are having an impact on the economic life of the country and on motorists. I challenge any Member of the House to take a look at the wheels and tyres of cars outside the capital. They will see that many people are driving on tyres which are unsafe because they have hit one pothole too many. This is not their fault because, financially speaking, January is a very tight month. However, the fact that there is an impact must be recognised by the House. The only way we can deal with it is by putting more money into our local authorities to allow them to improve and refurbish the road network.

I shall speak in specific terms about the total communications failure that defined the weather crisis. In a publication on co-ordination for major emergencies issued by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government it is stated:

The framework is designed primarily to provide for the protection, support and welfare of the public in times of emergency. Effective arrangements to ensure public safety in times of emergency also have the benefit of helping to safeguard the environment, the economy, infrastructure and property. The framework for major emergencies aims to ensure we are able to respond to emergencies at the national, regional and local level and to make sure that the essential services keep operating.

On that basis we must conclude that the framework failed in many of its objectives. Thousands of people throughout the country, including in my constituency, were affected for days. Countless older people were left trapped in their homes for the duration of the crisis. Many people were unable to get buses to work and for weeks on end many others were unable to use their cars to get to work. The local economy in some parts of east Meath ceased to operate for the length of the crisis. There were many accidents involving motorists and pedestrians over the three weeks in question.

Nobody claims that the weather we experienced was in any way typical of conditions in Ireland. What was entirely typical, however, was the absolute failure by Government to communicate a co-ordinated national response. That simply did not happen. It is without doubt entirely necessary that any emergency response framework should include multiple layers of Government. A top-down accident strategy would be impossible to implement given that much of the necessary work happens at local level. However, it must be understood that alleviation and action plan implementation can and should be distinct from the communication strategy that, logically, should surround an emergency response framework. While alleviation is complex and involves a multi-agency response, emergency communication should be clear and cohesive, with one voice in authority. Instead, the public had silence for weeks, followed by confused messages from Government, defensive comments and, very often, contradictory messages from the authorities.

This is not a difficult concept to grasp, yet the Government failed utterly to communicate any sense that there was a genuine co-ordinated response or that the situation was being managed on behalf of the public. I ask the Minister of State whether a communications strategy for emergency situations exists. That was not clear. Similarly, I would like him to clarify to the House that a review of emergency communications will be carried out in the light of the failures over Christmas.

I shall make some concrete, inexpensive and easily implementable suggestions. The following statement appears on the website www.emergencyplanning.ie:

For current information on severe weather issues please contact your local authority. You may access your local authority's website through the links button on this page.

That is the sum total of information as it appeared on the centralised emergency response website of the State. Passing the buck is not communicating. It creates confusion, a lack of cohesion and fragmented emergency responses. We need to look at this and ensure we put in place a more detailed co-ordinated response. We could do this by improving the amount of information available on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter that might be activated in emergencies to provide real-time and immediate updates on events and what to do. Social media offer an invaluable tool for connecting with people in a time of crisis following the cancellation of services due to bad weather. Eurostar, which operates between London, Paris and Brussels, was severely criticised for the breakdown in any kind of communications with its public and passengers. It is currently reviewing its entire communications strategy in light of these failures and I strongly suggest the Government should do likewise.

Even Opposition politicians understand that certain events are totally outside the control of the Government and present the apparatus of the State with very serious managerial and reactive challenges. However, there is no excuse for the farcical level of communications and run-for-cover mentality that characterised the response to the weather crisis. A simple example relates to the subsequent problems in water supply. On several message boards and blogs, ill-informed but well-meaning people advised others to leave the main household tap on a slow drip to avoid freezing pipes. Often, advice was confused and given out incorrectly. The Government allowed a vacuum to develop in the weather crisis which was filled by anger, poor advice and a damaging perception that nobody was managing the crisis.

I spoke in very specific terms today about how this type of situation might be managed better in the future. I would be very interested to hear the views of the Minister of State, Deputy Finneran, on how communication, co-ordination and reassurance can be implemented more effectively