Multi-agency group met for first time yesterday to tackle three-week-old national emergency
WITH ARCTIC weather conditions set to deteriorate sharply over the weekend, the National Emergency Response Co-ordination Committee (NERCC) convened yesterday to mobilise a State-wide response.
The meeting, which took place at the National Emergency Co-ordination Centre – a state of the art command and control headquarters completed in April 2008 and located at Agriculture House on Kildare Street – involved representatives from all Government departments, the Garda, Defence Forces, HSE and local authorities.
This is the first time since December 18th, when the unprecedented weather phenomenon began in earnest, that the committee has formally met to activate a nationwide, multi-agency response. The meeting lasted just over two hours and The Irish Times has been informed by stakeholders that attended that it was an invaluable opportunity for first-line responders such as the Garda, Ambulance Service, Defence Forces and local authorities to cut through bureaucratic obstacles to mobilise all of the State’s resources effectively.
The activation of the committee allows for a centrally co-ordinated, coherent nationwide response to the severe conditions forecast for the next 48 hours.
While the situation has not been formally declared a major emergency by any Government agency or department, Minister for the Environment John Gormley told The Irish Times yesterday that the committee was convened after an approach was made by him and his officials to Taoiseach Brian Cowen.
The Government’s definition of a major emergency is “an event which causes or threatens death or injury, serious disruption of essential services or damage to property, the environment or infrastructure beyond the normal capabilities of the principal emergency services”.
With over 1,000 fractures treated so far in Cork alone due to accidents and falls, with ground temperatures below freezing nationwide and with the State’s schools closed until at least Thursday, the situation clearly falls within the Government’s definition.
The Government’s guidelines on emergency planning define “severe weather” as a major emergency requiring a response at national level. The guidelines explicitly state that such an emergency response cannot be configured locally. In such circumstances, the guidelines on major emergency management – available at www.mem.ie – state that agencies like the Department of Health and Children, the Department of the Environment, or the Department of Justice, are encouraged and authorised to “declare a major emergency”.
The document states: “Any one of the principal response agencies may declare a major emergency and . . . the major emergency plans of the three relevant agencies will be activated immediately when they are notified of the declaration”.
This being the case, many people may ask why it took almost three weeks for the Minister for the Environment to urge the Taoiseach into action or why Minister for Health Mary Harney or Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern did not declare the severe weather to be a major emergency over the last few weeks.