COUNCILLORS have questioned the need for a national public warning system with Cllr Audrey Buckley (FF) requesting an update on the cell broadcast emergency alert system.

She told a meeting of Cork County Council that the matter had been raised almost two years ago and she had been told the government were working on a system, noting that Ireland had missed the European Union’s June 2022 deadline to have a nationwide public warning system in place.

She praised the County Cork Alerts service, which sends out a text message, social media and email alerts to registered users to warn of floods, severe weather, road updates, planning applications and bathing water quality alerts.

Cllr Buckley explained that other countries have adopted a distinct noise and vibration for their emergency alerts which help distinguish the urgent notifications.

She also added that cell alerts would have a higher chance of reaching the elderly and most vulnerable in society.

She asked for support to write to the relevant minister to ask when the system is expected to be operational and “whether local authorities will have access to the system to issue localised emergency warnings”.

Cllr Buckley highlighted the extreme weather over the summer, pointing to the fire at Camden Fort as a situation where a localised alert would have been useful.

Cllr Alan Dromey (FF) said it was “crucially important”, adding that the scale of weather events can vary drastically from East Cork to Allihies, making localised alerts all the more important.

He said that Ireland is “lagging behind” when it comes to an emergency alert system.

However not all councillors were in favour of an emergency alert system. Cllr Alan Coleman (Ind) acknowledged the value in such an approach but said he wasn’t looking forward to it.

He expressed concern that people are being conditioned to live through crisis constantly and are being warned about every minor weather event.

He argued that changing weather was to be expected living next to the Atlantic.

He asked how many events had been cancelled in the past year due to “over-hyped” weather warnings.

Cllr Peter O’Donoghue (Aontú) agreed, warning the constant warnings were “fearmongering” with the general public and were not good for people’s mental health.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.