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BUSINESS GROUPS HAVE said that it shouldn’t be essential for workplaces to close during a time of a red alert weather warning, despite the warning this week urging people to stay indoors.
Before the storm hit the country, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said that people should heed the warnings given by the authorities while Minister Eoghan Murphy said that the “onus is on the employer to put the safety of staff at their forefront”.
The Taoiseach also said, however, that employers should make their own choice on the matter and that a “blanket instruction” on all businesses to close would be inappropriate.
A proposed Sinn Féin bill would make it compulsory for employers to close its place of business during a red alert, and not penalise their employees for doing so, but it has not received government support.
What is a red alert?
A Met Éireann red alert is one which advises people to take action.
Here is its definition:
The issue of red level severe weather warnings should be a comparatively rare event and implies that recipients take action to protect themselves and/or their properties; this could be by moving their families out of the danger zone temporarily; by staying indoors; or by other specific actions aimed at mitigating the effects of the weather conditions.
Prior to this week’s nationwide red alert, the previous similar alert issued was during Storm Ophelia in October 2017, where three people died.
Authorities were abundantly clear in their advice ahead of the worst of the storm this week.
Varadkar warned in a public address that in a blizzard scenario it could be “total wipeout” outdoors, and that between 4pm on Thursday and 12 noon on Friday the country is on “red alert”.
National Emergency Coordination Group chair Sean Hogan was even more unequivocal. He said on Wednesday: “Do not be out there from 4pm tomorrow. This is like Ophelia, it is a different type of safety concern but it is a safety concern.
If people need to travel they need to consider how they will be home safely by 4pm tomorrow.
He said employers will need to consider whether it will be safe to ask employees to come to work over the coming days.
“We’re hoping the damage won’t be like what it was with Ophelia but we are in uncertain territory here,” said Hogan.
He said that if people are out and about in the weather on Thursday and Friday they might get disorientated and lost. He noted there were a number of deaths of people outdoors in 2010.
Sinn Féin wants this kind of advice in a red alert warning formalised in legislation. Under the bill, an employer would be required to, in the event of the place of work being subject to a red weather alert, “close such place and make reasonable measures to inform all employees to stay away from it for the duration of that warning”.
Another provision would be to “ensure that an employee who stays away from such place of work for the duration of a Status Red severe weather warning is not penalised because of such action”.
Sinn Féin Imelda Munster TD said: “This bill will provide for the safety of employees during certain severe weather warnings. It will enhance public safety and ensure the safety of rescue service personnel during such a weather warning.
There was a significant level of confusion in the aftermath of Storm Ophelia regarding what actions businesses in the private sector and self-employed persons should take during an extreme weather warning… As legislators we must now take measures to guide employers, protect workers and strengthen the powers of emergency services in the case of future warnings.
Disagreement
Business groups, however, think that such measures would go too far.
While groups such as Ibec and Isme urged employers to heed the government’s warnings, and treat the safety of their staff with the utmost seriousness, some feel a blanket ban on a business opening in such a weather event goes too far.
Graeme McQueen, head of public affairs at Dublin Chamber, says that businesses by and large heeded the advice and took sensible measures in given the weather conditions.
He told TheJournal.ie on Thursday: “Ultimately it’s up to the individual business in terms of what they decide to do. However, the warnings that have been issued by the various authorities are clear and should be adhered to.
The view of Dublin Chamber remains that people come first in this situation. Given the seriousness of the weather warnings, we would encourage employers to look after their staff – particularly given the lack of public transport available.
For the most part, common sense has prevailed, with a lot of companies allowing staff to work from home. This will be the case again on Friday.
ISME CEO Neil McDonnell told TheJournal.ie that any proposals to enforce the closure of businesses in such events was unworkable.
He said: “We don’t believe it would be appropriate to order businesses to shut when there is a red alert warning.
Who would be responsible for deciding which businesses to shut, and which to leave open. Many ‘non-essential’ workplaces are really important to our daily lives.
Bakers, convenience stores, forecourts, HSE outworkers, man-in-van services, utilities services; all of these become ‘essential’ when we need them. Invoking some law to direct the shut-down of everything would simply be a cop-out.
McDonnell added that workers are already protected under the Safety Health and Welfare at Work Act.
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Alot he fking knows…theyre on another planet the lot of them..whats the alternative to oil, gas or coal without extortionate expenses to fit solar or the next energy source..they’ve jumped the gun with this one and offered no incentive to switch to cleaner energy sources…and yes I know there are grants in place but its not enough…if they want to make an impression, then don’t take money off people to justify it saving the planet.. Build a proper program outlining the options for people, a cost effective solution instead of take take take.
@Craig Clancy: People simply cannot afford grants, costs to much to upgrade systems. Initial outlaw is to much,
@Craig Clancy: Grants are part of the give. Green energy such as wind is subsidised. What’s your great plan to reduce pollution without hitting people’s pockets?
@Dave Barrett: I would love to go solar or any other viable resource but as you pointed out it’s too expensive even with the grant..how much was it for all those water meters that are due to need upgrading soon? Surely they could of put that money towards a nationwide energy campaign..biggest tax take last year and still the roads are in $hite, homelessness is rampant still, hospitals over run and understaffed but yet they still suck us dry of every extra cent we try use to survive…its going to hit a boiling point soon and some one will take matters in to their own hands.
@Mickety Dee: how about stop taking more and more money off people and give them a chance to actually switch over or upgrade..they ran this way too quick and gave no viable plan for anyone, absolutely no incentive to switch over..literally said here are your options off you go now hurry before we start taking just that little squeeze more off you…how is it our fault that they’re are not other things in place…start by fixing the appalling public transport, focus more on helping people change over to solar rather than punish them for not having it, work with the people..thats the problem they are so detached from reality its frightening.
@Craig Clancy: Irish people lack back bone. Yellow vests needed.
@Craig Clancy: need to take vat off renewables!
@Aidan Conway: alot more than take the vat off.
@Dave Barrett: well anyone who protests is called an extremist or anti vaxer or a crazy person by the media, or protesting is made illegal like the truckers one in Canada. Not much the normal person can do anymore to oppose anything.
The main reason for cost of living rises is we dont have a regulator to question why everything is on the rise
Oh wait a minute we do have a regulator .
He must have fallen asleep like Eamonn and everything went up when his eyes were closed.
@Stephen Carslake: That’s not the reason for increases. Read the media of any country in the world and you’ll see that.
The Irish energy regulator does not influence prices in the US, UK, Germany, Spain, Turkey, France, Italy etc etc
Our energy regulator may make dubious calls but they are not the sole reason for the price increases.
@Lee King Buckett: they’re allowing energy companies raise standing charges, which are nothing to do with global energy supplies. The bill increases can be excused for global rises, but there’s no reason for raising standing charges other than opportunistic greed which is where the regulator should step in .. but doesn’t!
@Rob Gale: Agreed but as per the original comment that’s not ‘the main reason’ for price increases.
The main reason is a global energy crisis, the standing charge increase is gouging but not major.
@Lee King Buckett: I’m not sure about the gas suppliers, but:
ESB Networks are managing/maintaining the whole electricity infrastructure and (most/a lot of) the production.
I would guess, that’s covered with the standing charges, or at least the major chunk of it? IF they increased the charges to Energia, Airtricity, or whoever, they will only pass the charges on to the customer, I guess?
You have to laugh that the Green Party under Eamonn Ryan seemingly sacrificed all of their principles in government on areas like greyhound racing, hare coursing, neutrality, direct provision etc in exchange for this carbon tax that would ultimately become redundant through global events and fudged away from making a difference.
Brilliant stuff Green TDs, you’ve achieved nothing in government other than providing the necessary numbers for FF & FG to implement their policies. Bravo.
This is literally bizzare, as in really really bizzare, one of the main exporters of oil/gas IE Russia is all but closing its supply to Europe, causing massive price increases across the board. I am no expert here at all, but Eamonn do you think I would be paying over the odds if I had an alterative way to get said energy? There is no alteratives even remotely ready to take over. Even if I installed a 10kW solar system with battery, it still needs subbing from the grid, which is again, gas powered for the most part. Also, in saying that, I am just talking about household energy useage. I have no idea about farms, but what I do know is all that farm machinary is fuel based, what alternatives have been given to farmers, that’s just one industry. Also, yet again, moving everything to electric based is putting massive pressure on the national grid, which again is still massively gas based on the back end and is nearly keeling over with 15/20 odd data centres in the mix and Eamonn and co think this same grid is ready to handle the entire country going fully electric. Seriously, what plannet is this lad on.
@Dave.: Also, I just want to add. Seriously, when are the Irish people actually going to get up and march on the Dail, this is not right. How can it be, as one poster pointed out, fuel prices have increased so much that its has actually bettered any increase the Carbon Tax would yeild, yet goverment still continue to push for more increases. Are we really as a nation going to sit down and take this no problem?
@Dave.: Russia has not reduced gas or oil supplies to Europe at all. Ireland gets its gas from Scotland.
The war in Ukraine has resulted in speculative increases in oil but gas has reduced in price in the last 5 weeks. The causes of energy price spikes predate the war in Ukraine.
Other than that, you’re correct about the lack of alternatives and the fact that a carbon tax won’t reduce usage at all.
They will put the Tax on To Keep Ryan on Board and then give it Back some other Way What Load of Bollicks
The whole point of a carbon tax is to disincentivise (or in our case more likely to avoid EU fines). For gas and oil, the price has already risen high enough to disincentivise. Adding any more money is just making poor people poorer.
Also, how can Irish people be disincentivised to use a car when we have the worst public transport infrastructure in Western Europe? We have very few safe bike lanes (and those that we have abruptly end for no reason). Even in Dublin.
Its just a load of virtue signalling and kicking the can down the road. Like the paper straws, none of this is going to make any sort of meaningful difference. What we need is major investments in renewables, investment in our public transport and cycling infrastructure, and much more. Not a bunch of new taxes.
@Tomo: Avoid EU fines ??? This State pay the EU fines every year because they are charging the Irish motorists VRT which is outlawed by the EU .. so they know exactly what they are doing.. Instead of taxing the public Carbon Tax, they should be heavily investing in the ESB to help them build multiple wind farms…and not giving out subsidies to private companies
Where are all the FF/FG/GP middle leg huggers today? Very quiet…surely it’s hitting home to them on the failure of their parties?
Az if things were not expensive enough, soon enough a car owner wont be able to afforx to fuel a car pay for home heating.surely the government can off put this raise.
The easiest way to offset the burden of the tax is not to introduce it due to the current circumstances. But they will go on and on with all kinds of waffle just to keep the Greens on board. Personally I have lost all faith in FF and FG.
I wonder what the US multinationals are paying for electricity for all the data centers that are gobbling up loads of out electricity. I’d bet they pay seriously less that the average person. All new data centers and other non essential type IT should be paused until this is under control. Our citizens can’t afford food or electricity but we have many times redundancy in our data storage incase of a few mins outage on watching netflix. Great priorities we have in the 21st century.
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