COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, December 10, 2018

QUESTION NO. 7

QUESTION: Councillor C. O'Connor

To ask the Chief Executive to present an update on plans in place to deal with Winter weather events; will he provide details and will he make a statement.

REPLY:

South Dublin County Council under the Major Emergency Management Framework is in the process of finalising the following plans:

• Flood Emergency Plan,
• Severe Weather Plan, and
• Rest Centre Plan 

They will be made available to the council members once completed in the coming weeks.

The protocols for Severe Weather are contained in the draft plans, and being actioned upon receipt of weather warnings from Met Éireann, are as follows:

Status Yellow: Be Aware - A general notification email is sent to relevant staff across the organisation- inspections of key infrastructure and equipment carried out by relevant departments.

Status Orange: Be Prepared - Triggers a meeting of the Severe Weather Assessment Team (SWAT) comprised of senior management across all departments, who discuss the issues particular to that weather event and agree the appropriate response/ action from each department.  

Status Red: Take Action - this should be a comparatively rare event and implies that recipients take action to protect themselves and/or their properties. The SWAT team is now a Crisis Management Team and meets as often as necessary - hourly, twice daily, etc., depending on dynamics of the weather event, possibly over the conference call facilities. National and Regional Emergency offices are likely also being updated via teleconference at this stage to facilitate inter agency cooperation between the LA, HSE and AGS.

The 2018-2019 Winter Maintenance Plan was presented to all the ACM’s by the Road Maintenance Department. The Winter Maintenance Plan includes information the 7 gritting routes and also on salt barns, salt bins etc.

The 7 gritting routes and the associated gritting truck can also have a snow plough attached if this is required, information on the routes are available at the link below, the link to the national winter ready web site is also below.https://www.sdcc.ie/en/services/transport/winter-weather-info/

South Dublin County Council will continue to provide information to citizens through weather events on all available social media including our website (www.sdcc.ie ), facebook and twitter.

There is also some information that may be useful on https://www.winterready.ie/en