Opposition slams lack of emergency response system

THE Government has no mechanism to declare a national state of emergency to put in place a countrywide response to a crisis such as severe flooding and heavy snowfall.

The opposition last night described the response system for weather disasters as “bizarre” and “dysfunctional” after an Oireachtas committee heard it was the responsibility of each local authority to declare an emergency in their own area.

Despite this obligation not a single local council met their obligations to declare an emergency when the country was hit by the worst deluges in decades last November and again during the big freeze in recent weeks.

The failure to notify authorities of a major emergency, as required under the Government’s own framework, is to be examined by the National Emergency Response Co-ordinating Committee.

Committee chairman Sean Hogan said: “One of the issues that will come up for review is why no one declared a major emergency in accordance with the framework document.”

The Oireachtas Environment Committee heard there is no mechanism for the Government or a minister to declare a national emergency when severe weather hits.

Officials from local authorities, the HSE or the Garda can declare a “major emergency” of which they have to inform the Departments of the Environment, Health and Justice.

Committee member Labour’s Ciarán Lynch said this situation was bizarre and “absolutely astonishing”.

He asked: “Is it any wonder that the response to the current weather situation has been so disjointed?

“What we have is a discordant melody of local responses, operating in an individual orchestrated manner with no national conductor.”

Fine Gael environment spokesperson Phil Hogan said: “A national emergency requires a national response. It should not be the case that a series of local authorities declare emergencies on a local basis throughout the country.”

He said: “The current crisis is a national one. If there is no centralised response, then the reaction will be fragmented and ineffective.”

As Cork city and county braced itself for more flooding last night, it emerged that both councils failed to declare an emergency when the worst flooding hit last November.

Sean Hogan said, “On the night that water was released from the Inniscarra dam, we were informed by people in Cork city and Cork county of threatened flooding which might result in the declaration of a major emergency.”

But he said: “I don’t think we received a call saying they had declared a major emergency.”

Mr Lynch said: “I was astonished to hear that at no stage in recent months was a state of emergency declared in Cork.

“During this time, millions of litres of water were pouring on to city streets, houses were being destroyed, schools were forced to close, roads became impossible and hospital Emergency Departments& became even more overcrowded than usual.”

He said: “Incredibly, despite the chaos that was playing out in front of our eyes, the protocol in place for declaring a state of emergency was not put into operation.”

At yesterday’s meeting. the Oireachtas committee also agreed to travel to Cork to meet communities affected by the flooding.