Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim mo bhuíochas leis an Aire Stáit as a bheith linn. I am glad Senator Norris is not here because unusually for me I have put a few notes together. I hope the Minister of State will not be offended when I read my notes.

When launching the Be Winter-Ready initiative in early November, the Minister of State stated it was designed to provide practical advice on the measures citizen, businesses and communities can take to prepare for severe weather events. My colleagues have touched on them. The purpose of the initiative is also to reassure the public that adequate preparations are being put in place to ensure a co-ordinated response when emergency services are tasked with responding to exceptional weather circumstances.

I have looked at the Be Winter-Ready website and it is a helpful aid that provides useful online information and contacts for people who have access to the Internet. Its usefulness for the elderly, however, one of the most vulnerable at risk groups from severe winter weather, is likely to be limited as they are least likely to have access to the Internet and other online resources such as Twitter and Facebook. This means it is especially important - to be fair the Minister has touched on this - that consideration is given to older people when promoting the Be Winter-Ready campaign. I am interested in how this might be achieved. Will the information on the Be Winter-Ready website be provided to at risk groups which might not have online access? This could be done through more traditional forms of communications, such as the direct mailing of leaflets with the same information that is available online. It is also useful that local authorities have been informed of the capabilities that the Defence Forces can bring to an emergency response and advise on local call-out arrangements in advance.

The Minister of State might explain how the relevant Departments and agencies plan to communicate their own preparations and information campaigns as part of what he has described as the whole of Government approach to winter readiness.

In a recent reply to a parliamentary question from my colleague, Deputy Ó Snodaigh, about the contingency plans that are in place to deal with natural emergencies, the Minister of State confirmed that the Department of Defence has put in place a memorandum of understanding and service level agreements with other Departments and State agencies to ensure the maintenance of essential services.Of course, specialised training is essential so that Defence Forces personnel can respond more effectively in a crisis and I welcome the joint exercises involving soldiers, the navy, the Air Corps and the principal response agencies that took place recently as we work towards providing a more fully integrated response. In 2015, for example, members of the Defence Forces participated in an interdepartmental desktop exercise based on a severe wind and rainfall event and this proved useful when responding to the storms and the wet weather of 2016. One of the key outcomes in respect of the training was the provision of a water awareness syllabus of training and to date almost 700 Defence Forces personnel have availed of this. Perhaps the Minister of State will expand further on any additional lessons that have been learned from the interdepartmental exercise and if future similar exercises are planned for 2017. By engaging in these very worthwhile exercises, we will enable the Defence Forces to develop and improve their capacity to respond to requests for assistance in a flooding emergency or other incidents caused by nature. The enhanced efforts to prepare a co-ordinated response that will cover both routine and non-routine emergency scenarios that the Defence Forces might provide must be built upon and expanded.

The Defence Forces should be properly utilised and become fully integrated when supporting front line Departments and agencies. Regrettably, this has not been the case in the past, when in recent years we have experienced exceptional weather events such as the extreme cold of 2010 and last year's unprecedented flooding and storms. The worsening weather patterns that are likely as a result of global warming and climate change are a fact of life that have caused serious hardship for both urban and rural communities across the State. Our changing climate presents serious challenges for the Minister of State and his Government colleagues who have the responsibility for ensuring our emergency services have the resources and training to properly respond in a crisis. To achieve this, pre-planning and careful co-ordination between the various agencies and Departments is essential as we must maximise the effectiveness of the response to emergencies. Of course, adverse weather knows no borders. I note that in the past there has been positive co-operation between the Department of Defence and colleagues in the North in assisting farmers, in particular, north of the Border. I very much welcome that strategic co-operation and I ask the Minister of State to outline any pre-planning that might look at adverse impacts across the island in its entirety and how the Defence Forces personnel and other agencies can work north of the Border to assist those who find themselves in need.

One of the most serious failings of the past when responding to severe winter weather conditions has been the slow response to emergencies whenever they occur. Poor planning, bad communication and indecisiveness have often left communities defenceless and exposed in the face of storms and flooding which has resulted in extensive damage that would have been minimised if the Defence Forces had been deployed more effectively. We need to learn from lack of past readiness that has resulted in slow response times in order to ensure that Defence Forces personnel are deployed rapidly to the areas where they are needed most. This means having in place a fully joined-up approach between all of the relevant Departments and agencies, including Met Éireann, whose early warnings of impending severe weather should allow for a proactive deployment of personnel. If this can be achieved we can ensure that the Defence Forces' effectiveness is maximised and that they are in the vanguard of operations to assist other first responders to emergencies. I hope, therefore, that the winter ready initiative will help to achieve these aims.