No Government department or agency has agreed to take on responsibility for a planned new public warning system for flooding and other potentially hazardous events in an impasse that has caused disquiet among senior Ministers.
Highly placed sources in Government said the Taoiseach and Tánaiste were unhappy that several departments and agencies believed operational control of the planned new alert system should be done by others.
The new warning system is scheduled to be introduced next year.
A decision on who will be responsible for issuing warnings using the new system is expected to be taken by the Government later this year.
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There have been suggestions within the Coalition that several agencies could potentially be given responsibility for running the new alert system. These include local authorities, Met Éireann, the Office of Public Works and the Environmental Protection Agency.
However, sources said there was no agreement on the issue at a meeting of the Cabinet subcommittee on climate action last week.
One highly placed Government source said “the issue just went around the houses” at the subcommittee.
Sources said Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Simon Harris were unhappy that individual departments and agencies appeared to believe that others should take responsibility for running the new alert system.
The Department of Communications told The Irish Times the Government intended to develop a cell broadcast public warning system (CB-PWS). It said this technology was widely used for public warning systems in many countries, as it allowed for localised alerting based on network mast location.
“It is the department’s role to procure the technical solution for the PWS and engage with telecommunications operators to integrate the technology into their systems.”
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The department said development of protocols and procedures for the use of the PWS, including establishing operational responsibility, was a matter for the Office of Emergency Planning in the Department of Defence and the Government taskforce on emergency planning, chaired by Minister for Defence Helen McEntee.
“The Minister [for Communications, Patrick O’Donovan] intends to bring a memorandum to Government shortly in relation to the project. Pending Government approval and the assignment of operational responsibility to an appropriate entity, it is anticipated that procurement for the PWS technical solution will begin in 2026, with integration and implementation in 2027.
“This will allow the PWS to become part of existing emergency communications structures that are already in place and, in the appropriate circumstances, it will be another channel to provide information to the public among those already existing, such as social media, TV and radio,” said the department.
