COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

South Dublin County Council Crest

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, December 13, 2021

QUESTION NO.19

QUESTION: Councillor C. O'Connor

To ask the Chief Executive to confirm plans to provide emergency cover over the Christmas period; will he give details and make a statement? 

REPLY:

In advance of the offices closing on the 24th December 2021 and re-opening on Tuesday 4th January 2022, notices will be placed on the Council website, all South Dublin County Council social media accounts and telephony systems advising members of the public that the offices are closed during this period. Additional information will also be provided regarding the Council’s Emergency/ Out of hour’s service number:  01- 4574907, along with all up to date Council Guidelines concerning COVID-19.

Each service department will have several staff who are rostered over the holiday period to be ‘on call’ to deal with emergencies.  Each service department defines in advance what calls are deemed an emergency and only these calls are forwarded by the call centre staff to the relevant council staff ‘on call’.

South Dublin County Council's Severe Weather Assessment Team (SWAT) meets in advance of all storms on foot of any Met Eireann Weather Warnings received. The SWAT is made up of senior staff from across the organisation. The purpose of the meeting is to assess the readiness of the council to deal with the upcoming storm and severe weather events and put in place preventative actions as required.

South Dublin County Council  has under the Major Emergency Management Framework,  the following plans:

The protocols for Severe Weather are contained in the 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 2021-2022 Winter Maintenance Plan has been finalised and were presented to all the ACM’s by the Road Maintenance Department in November. The Winter Maintenance Plan includes information the 7 gritting routes and also on salt barns, salt bins etc. and can be found, with other useful links here: Be Winter Ready - SDCC

South Dublin County Council will continue to provide information to citizens through weather events on all available social media including our website https://www.sdcc.ie/  

The national winter ready website also has very useful information and can be found at gov.ie - Be Winter Ready (www.gov.ie)

The Council has maintenance crews on standby to deal with emergencies over the Christmas and Winter period.  An emergency service is provided where members of the public seeking assistance in an emergency can contact the Council's out of hours emergency number at 01- 4574907.

You can also follow the below Twitter accounts to stay updated.

https://twitter.com/sdublincoco

https://www.facebook.com/SouthDublinCountyCouncil

@emergencyIE @DubFirBrigade @ESBNetworks @MetEireann @gardainfo @GardaTraffic @IrishWater @IWCare @opwireland

Housing Maintenance:

From 1pm on Thursday 24th December 2021 to 9am on Tuesday 4th January 2022, there will only be emergency housing maintenance services to our tenants.  If an emergency should arise during this period, tenants can call the emergency/out of hours number (01) 457 4907.  This is for situations where there is: serious risk to life or health; imminent threat of the house being flooded by water or sewage; total failure of electricity supply or an electrical fault; and/or risk of significant damage to the property. When calling, tenants must also advise if any member of the household has COVID 19 symptoms or is self-isolating - stringent procedurers are in place for our teams to enable them to work safely and provide services during the pandemic. If the maintenance issue does not fall into the emergency categories, the issue can be reported when full service resumes on 4th January 2022.  If you need the FIRE BRIGADE, GARDAI or an AMBULANCE, DIAL 999. DO NOT WAIT for a member of our staff.  If you smell gas, please call the Gas Networks Ireland 24- hour Emergency Service IMMEDIATELY on Tel: 1850205050.