Public gets green light to help clear footpaths
Justice and Defence Minister Alan Shatter said that the office of the Attorney General had provided advice that the issue of liability does not arise for snow cleared in a safe manner.
Uncertainty over personal liability and the fear of legal action resulted in many homeowners being reluctant to clear footpaths during last winter’s extended period of freezing weather.
Local authorities have drafted plans to clear “strategically important” footpaths in urban and built-up areas following criticism of the focus by council workers last year on removing snow and ice from roads.
Some councils are also drafting plans to make grit available at drop-off points for use by farming organisations in isolated and rural areas.
Announcing details of the Government’s Winter Ready campaign yesterday, Mr Shatter, accompanied by Transport Minister Leo Varadkar and Environment Minister Phil Hogan, said he wanted to ensure local authorities had learnt the mistakes of last winter — one of the coldest in recent history — when the country had suffered two periods of severe weather.
Mr Shatter, who chairs the task force on emergency planning, said he had been reassured by the various agencies that much had been done “to improve resilience” in preparedness for another extreme winter.
Mr Varadkar said one of the main objectives for any period of a freeze was to keep the country’s main roads and airports open and the public transport system operational.
He said 200,000 tonnes of salt — equivalent to three years’ supply for normal winter weather and costing €16 million — had been purchased in advance of the coming winter season.
Mr Varadkar said such supplies represented almost a doubling of the quantity of salt used to grit roads last winter.
The minister said the Dublin Airport Authority had invested €7m in new equipment to speed up the clearance of snow and ice from runways, while there had been a 10% increase in the winter maintenance grant to local authorities.
To coincide with the campaign, the Government has also launched a dedicated website providing information and advice on how best to prepare for the coming winter.
Although contact details for out-of-office and emergency numbers are not available on the website, Mr Hogan said it was intended that local authorities would have staff to monitor normal phone lines during any period of extreme weather.
However, Ger Fleming of Met Éireann had little cheer for those dreaming of a white Christmas as he claimed it was too early to predict the severity of the forthcoming winter.
“We don’t have any indication of particularly severe weather,” said the well-known forecaster, before adding that the last two winters were unusually cold while the previous 20 had been “very mild”.
* www.winterready.ie.
