'Community hubs will be available to vulnerable people as long as they are needed'

Due to prolonged power outages across the county and unprecedented damage caused by Storm Éowyn, Meath Co Council has established a number of community response centres to support people in difficulty during this time.

Monday's Meath County Council meeting in Buvinda House in Navan was told that community hubs would be made available to support those affected by the severe weather event by providing essential services such as device charging, hot meals, water, Wi-Fi and showers.

These hubs were established after the Community Response Forum, chaired by Meath County Council Chief Executive Kieran Kehoe, convened on Monday morning discussing the ongoing effects of Storm Éowyn and identifying what could be done to further assist people in difficulty.

Specific locations include Athboy Community Centre, Ballivor GFC, Ballinlough GFC, Bohermeen Community Centre, Carnaross GFC, Cortown GFC, Costello's Centra Kilmessan, Kells Family Resource Centre, Mullagh - Kilian's Lodge Hotel, Nobber GFC, Skryne GFC, The Carnaross Inn, Trim Castle Hotel and Walterstown GFC.

The meeting was told that Irish Water and the Civil Defense were working to restore water supplies at 15 locations. The coordinated response involves multiple agencies including the Gardai and HSE.

The meeting was told that outdoor staff have been under significant pressure and vulnerable individuals are encouraged to contact the council for assistance.

In addition 60 per cent of the cases logged with the local authority have been resolved.

Speaking about the Community Hubs, Meath County Council Chief Executive Kieran Kehoe said: “Aside from the fantastic ongoing work of our crews on the roads in the most difficult of conditions, we are also aware that there are still people in the county that have no power, no water, no heating, no communication systems, so we are setting up these Community Hubs in key locations to help as many people as we can. “The critical thing now is getting help to these people, particularly any vulnerable people, and these hubs will be in operation as long as they are needed.”

Since Storm Éowyn made landfall in the county on Friday morning causing widespread damage, over 360 calls have been logged through Meath County Council's Customer Service portal.

Meath County Council crews have been working since it was made safe to do so on Friday afternoon and, in extremely difficult conditions including freezing temperatures and a Status Yellow Wind warning, most of these cases have now been resolved. Assistance was also provided by Meath County Council Fire and Rescue Service and the Civil Defence.

The Meath County Council Local Coordination Group (LCG) convened regularly on Friday and Saturday to evaluate the impact of Storm Éowyn. As the lead response agency for severe weather events, Meath County Council Chief Executive Kieran Kehoe chaired the group with representatives from An Garda Síochána and the HSE along with representatives from the Meath County Council Roads/Transportation, Fire Services, Housing, Water, Customer Services and Communications.

Speaking at the meeting, Cathaoirleach of Meath Co Council Sharon Tolan said:

“Our outdoor staff have been under tremendous pressure for a number of weeks from the very cold spell that we had with winter gritting, and then to be thrown into the workload that they had over the weekend and then back into winter gritting as well.

“So, on behalf of councillors, we’d like to thank them for that. I know some would say it is their jobs, but it is very, very challenging. Please make sure that you get any vulnerable people you know in touch with the council so they have all of those details. There's lots of groups offering help, but to have one coordinated approach is really, really important.”

Kells Cllr David Gilroy thanked the outdoor crews and mooted the idea of agencies coming together with the local authority to create a contingency plan for any potential future weather events. He said:

“What we see at the moment is that once one of the utilities go down, all of our utilities go down. So our phone network goes down, our water network goes down, as well as our ESB network. Perhaps there's an opportunity to look at what is Meath County Council's role is in relation to that and look at incorporating agencies into our planning rules and regulations for new infrastructure when planning comes up that we can ensure, or insist on contingencies being built into the infrastructure of utilities in within the area.

“This storm that we met on Friday we encountered in the exact same week last year. So while two instances don't make a pattern, if we're starting to see these things happening at the beginning of each year, then there's something we need to start thinking about. “