Donegal 'not on crisis response centre maps'

The worst suspicions of Ireland’s “forgotten county” were realised today as it emerged Donegal does not exist on the maps of the Government‘s crisis response headquarters.

The apparent oversight at the National Emergency Co-ordinating Centre was further proof the country’s second-largest county does not exist in the minds of central policy-makers, senior politicians claimed.

Charts on the walls of the taskforce HQ, two floors up in Dublin’s Agriculture House, show in detail the east, west and south of Ireland.

However, in the event of a major catastrophe hitting Donegal or the north, crisis management teams will have to scramble outside the nerve-centre to locate a map of Ulster, it seems.

Donegal TD Joe McHugh said the revelation would be nothing new to the man on the street in Donegal but it would rub salt into their wounds.

“This is a continuation of the inglorious attitude towards the forgotten county,” he said.

The HQ also has detailed street maps of the capital and Cork beside clocks showing local time and UTC – coordinated universal time, which is one hour behind standard Irish time.

Fianna Fáil Senator Cecilia Keaveney said it was not the first time the fiercely independent Donegal has been apparently overlooked by officialdom.

“Are we gone again?” she said.

“This is the third time. We’ll take it for granted then that we’re all right.”

Striking a conciliatory note, Mr McHugh said the oversight could be down to genuine confusion on the part of Government officials.

“Maybe they think Donegal is the furthest away county from Iceland and so it won’t be affected,” he said.

“Maybe they think there is no-one living there any more, or maybe it’s because of the ’No’ vote there in the last Lisbon Treaty referendum, and the Government are liaising with their European counterparts to erase that red blemish up there.

“Maybe we’re outside of Europe now.”

The Fine Gael TD added: “The big question will be is Tory Island included in the maps, because if the islanders find out they are not included there could be a serious militant offensive from them.”

Officials from Government departments, State agencies and emergency services meet at the emergency taskforce centre in the event of a major crisis, such as the current volcanic ash cloud fall-out.

Plasma television screens dotted around the hub show 24-hour rolling news from British broadcasters BBC and Sky News while off the main conference room, under a low roof, there are “break-out” rooms for brainstorming.

In recent years, both an Oireachtas video for primary schools and a map by the State training agency FÁS showed Donegal’s Inishowen peninsula as part of the North.

In another gaffe, a tourist map showed part of the rugged, sea swept county ceded from the Republic.

Separately, former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern previously appeared to suggest another border county, Cavan, was not in the Republic during a Dáil debate about broadband in 2008.

“It is funny to an extent but on a serious note it is not acceptable,” said Ms Keaveney, adding that she would raise the matter at the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party meeting.