Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 143: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the degree to which the local authorities are programmed to react effectively and expeditiously in emergency situations with particular reference to fire, flooding, chemical pollution or other emergences; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11933/11]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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For the purposes of the Fire Services Acts 1981 and 2003, city councils, county councils and borough councils are fire authorities. Under the legislation, each fire authority is required to prepare, and as occasion requires revise, a Fire and Emergency Operations Plan. The making of this Plan is a reserved function of the local authority. Inter alia , the Plan sets out the resources, operational procedures and training arrangements in relation to responses to incidents such as fire, flooding, chemical pollution or other emergences.

All county and city councils also have effective crisis management arrangements in place in accordance with the Framework for Major Emergency Management which was approved by Government in 2006. Under the Framework, local authorities, An Garda Síochána and the Health Service Executive are designated as the principal emergency response agencies for the country. The Framework sets out common arrangements and structures for front-line public sector emergency management in Ireland, is based on the internationally recognised systems approach and is designed to fit with the 'all hazards' approach to emergency management. One of the main purposes of the Framework is to set out the co-ordination mechanisms and working relationships between the various services which make up the front-line emergency response.

When the need arises, fire authorities use these procedures, which enable the principal response agencies together with the Defence Forces, Civil Defence and other voluntary agencies, to make and co-ordinate the appropriate response to significant incidents. Individual fire services escalate their response as they deem necessary, and use the generic co-ordination structures to ensure effective inter-agency collaboration where appropriate

It is a sound principle that emergency response builds from the local response level of emergency services in the area where the emergency event occurs. As an event unfolds, the response can be escalated, if required, to a regional response. If the situation escalates to an exceptional extent, a whole of Government approach may be initiated, with one of the main objectives being to support the local and regional responses.

I believe that we have appropriate and effective planning, co-ordination and implementation systems in place, as demonstrated successfully during the severe cold weather and flooding of 2009 and 2010 and in the response to the Cork Airport tragedy.