Councils say lack of salt to blame for failure to grit roads

WITH FURTHER snow expected over much of the country in the coming days, local authorities are blaming their failure to grit secondary roads on a lack of salt.

The Department of Transport said all local authorities had confirmed availability of salt to grit roads was the issue, not funding. The delivery yesterday of 4,000 tonnes of salt to Cork is expected to ease the situation. Another 4,000 tonnes are due to be shipped to Limerick tomorrow, while 3,000 tonnes have been ordered from Carrickfergus.

Met Éireann says the cold spell will last another week, with snow forecast over the northern half of the country for last night and early today. The rest of the week will be mainly dry and sunny, but night-time temperatures will plummet to minus 8 degrees, and snow showers are possible on most days. The current cold spell is the most prolonged in Ireland since 1963.

Motorists have again been urged to drive with caution, as ice makes road conditions dangerous. Snow fell yesterday in Leitrim, Longford and Donegal, where road conditions worsened.

However, only minor delays were reported on Bus Éireann routes, while some Dublin Bus routes were curtailed.

The AA said it had its busiest day yesterday, with over 700 calls for assistance by lunchtime. Car battery and electrical systems failures were four or five times greater than a typical Monday, the group said.

The Kerry Network of People with Disabilities called on the Government to make an exceptional needs payment of an extra €20 this week and next for vulnerable groups facing large heating bills. Fine Gael TD Deirdre Clune has written to Minister for Social Affairs Mary Hanafin asking her to provide emergency fuel allowance payments to vulnerable people suffering as a result of the bad weather.

A spokeswoman for the Minister said the supplementary welfare allowance scheme can help people with heating needs due to infirmity or a medical condition. However, extra weather-related payments had not been discussed.