Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Costello, to the House. While he does fantastic work in his area of responsibility, I would prefer if the Minister directly responsible for this matter was in the House for this debate. As the Minister of State is, in fairness, busy in his own job, it is a pity he has had to come to the Seanad for this debate. I know he was in Brussels during the week on important business concerning other more serious disasters. He would be far better employed dealing with that matter. I am sure his day has been significantly interrupted in having to come to the House for this debate on an issue which does not come within his area of responsibility. In saying that, I mean no disrespect to the Minister of State.

The storms that occurred over the Christmas period were relatively unprecedented and were pretty frightening for many people. People were frightened during the storms and following them when they saw the damage caused. People continue to be frightened because they are not sure what, if anything, will happen in terms of repair and replacement. There was significant flooding on the east coast in areas such as Meath and Louth, particularly the River Boyne area in Drogheda. I have not heard much in dispatches about that but I presume the local authority has been in touch with Government in regard to flood prevention initiatives in this repeatedly flooded area.

In regard to County Meath, the staff of Meath County Council, local gardaí and members of the local fire brigade are worthy of praise in terms of the huge amount of work done by them in unsocial hours during a holiday period when they would rather have been at home with their families. As a result of the storms, many trees in County Meath, and throughout the country, broke and fell. The fact that one had no idea or warning of when a tree might fall resulted in dangerous and unpredictable road conditions. I know that Meath County Council contractors responded at short notice to try to remove fallen trees in dangerous areas.

The media also deserves to be thanked for its work in informing people about what was going on at a time when many of its staff were also on holidays. There was no government agency open at the time which could provide people with information in regard to whether roads and so on were passable. This need was met not by a command and control centre in Dublin, but by AA Roadwatch, local radio stations, RTE, thejournal.ie website and so on. They took their role seriously and provided a wealth of information, as did many of the main newspapers through their websites. There was an absence of government at the time. While I am sure there people connected to the task force on emergency planning were working to resolve problems - I have already mentioned local authority staff and so on - the task force did not meet during the crisis. There was much criticism a few years ago of the former Minister, Noel Dempsey, being on holidays in Malta during a crisis. We do not know where any of the Ministers were at the time of this crisis. There was certainly no sign of any of them until a few days later. However, that lacuna was filled by the media, local authority staff and the emergency services, to whom I pay tribute at this time.

In terms of emergency planning, we need to improve. The Government spent a fortune last year on a leaflet relating to emergency planning. However, we got no information during the storms on what roads should be avoided and so on. Even today there is little information in regard to what amount of money will be spent, where it will be spent and what people can look forward to.

There should have been more central planning and emergency reactions at a time when there was a red alert covering large parts of the country. Winds reached hurricane force. Were this America, the media would have been broadcasting live from the scene, the winds were so bad. However, I am unsure as to whether the situation was taken that seriously by central government at the time in terms of the immediate reaction that was necessary, for example, confidence building and information provision. A much better job could have been done.