SAOIRSE32

Irish Independent

4 December 2006

THE COUNTRY awoke today to the aftermath of the worst storm in years, which caused flight delays, flooding and electricity blackouts.

A bridge near Beaufort, Co Kerry, which was washed away last night as a local river burst its banks.

A mopping-up exercise will now get under way as the full extent of the damage to homes and businesses in the worst-hit areas is assessed.

And while the high winds eased last night, Met Eireann warned that there was a possibility of another storm later in the week.

Amazingly, no deaths were reported in the Republic yesterday, although one man in Co Down died when he was swept into the sea by a large wave as he walked near a harbour wall on Saturday night.

Two fishermen held on to Paul Bogues after he fell into the water in Ardglass, Co Down, but he was later declared dead at hospital.

It was the second tragedy to hit his family this year. The body of his son Conor (26) has not been recovered since his fishing boat sank off Ardglass in January.

Two men in Tramore, Co Waterford, had a lucky escape when they were blown into the sea by high winds. Gardai managed to rescue one of them while a coastguard helicopter from Waterford winched another.

A garda suffered a suspected broken leg when she was trapped under a 30ft wooden hoarding blown over by storm force winds in north Dublin. She was on Operation Freeflow duty when gales knocked down the barrier, which was being used to block off a construction site just off the N32 Malahide Road.

It toppled over as she walked past, pinning her to the ground. She was taken to Beaumont Hospital. The N32 was closed for several hours as a result of the accident.

Met Eireann said the highest wind gust was recorded at 125kph in the greater Dublin region.

Rescue services around the coast were kept busy with a series of incidents throughout the day in Lahinch, Foynes and Sandycove, Dublin, where canoes overturned.

A search was underway for a man in his 50s seen entering the sea at Lahinch strand in Co Clare.

Asked if the Government would provide any flood relief funding for counties affected by flooding, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said: “I think that’s being addressed by Minister Roche, the Department [of the Environment] and the local authorities.”

High winds, sometimes gusting up to 150kmh, led to chaos at Dublin Airport, with flights diverted and thousands of passengers stranded.

Over 100 flights were affected and the Dublin Airport Authority said that by yesterday evening 31 incoming flights had been diverted to other airports, mainly Shannon, Belfast and Manchester.

“We have had 59 scheduled departures cancelled,” a spokesman said.

The incoming flights, mainly from the UK and Europe, had been cancelled before they left their home airports.

Aer Arann, which uses twin-engined propeller-driven planes, cancelled all its flights.

In the afternoon, Aer Lingus suspended its check-in service for several hours.

The disruption at the airport is expected to have a knock-on effect on services today.

The adverse weather conditons led to the cancellation of Stena Line sailings from Dun Laoghaire to Holyhead, while an Irish Ferries departure from Rosslare to Cherbourg and in the return direction were also deferred.

All Irish Ferries Dublin Swift sailings on the Dublin to Holyhead route were cancelled, with passengers being transferred to the large ferry, Ulysses.

Ferry companies advised intending passengers to check with them before travelling.

In Dublin, DART services were disrupted by fallen trees on the line, with no trains between Lansdowne Road and Dun Laoghaire from 10am to 2pm. Damage to overhead lines between Bray and Greystones meant there was no service on that stretch of the southside from around midday, with a shuttle bus bringing passengers between the two stations.

The high winds and heavy rain also hit sporting fixtures yesterday, with racing at Fairyhouse being cancelled after just two races due to howling winds.

The remainder of the card was postponed until Wednesday.

But other sporting fixtures, including FAI and GAA games went ahead, often in horrendous weather conditions for the players.

The Automobile Association said that driving conditions were extremely hazardous yesterday “as roads are extremely wet and in some places completely flooded.”

Counties in Leinster - including Meath, Kilkenny, Carlow and Wexford - were badly hit by flooding and fallen trees.

Crossmolina in Co Mayowas one of the worst-affected areas after the River Deel burst its banks early yesterday, causing damage estimated at more than €1m.

Families were evacuated as streets and homes were flooded to a depth of nearly a metre.

The storms knocked out the electricity supply to some 15,000 homes, hitting power lines in midland counties and in Kerry and Wexford. An ESB spokesman said last night that crews were working to restore power but that some 5,000 homes were still without power, though the bulk of those were expected to have electricity again before the morning.

Areas particularly affected included Ballinasloe, Moate, Ahascragh and parts of Wexford.

People throughout the country reported near-miraculous escapes, as trees, hoardings and sometimes roofs and walls were blown down by powerful gusts of wind.

Met Eireann said the severe winds would ease overnight but the storms would be slower to abate in northern parts. Today would start off dry at first, with winds continuing to moderate but it would become wet and windy again as the day went on, with more rain coming in from the Atlantic.

But it warned that the weather would remain “very unsettled” for the rest of the week, with Thursday again being possibly stormy.

The Irish Farmers Association asked farmers to look in on their neighbours during the current spell of bad weather.

Last night, several merchant ships were sheltering around the coast from the adverse weather, while some fishing boats put to sea earlier in the day.

Michael Lavery and Cormac Murphy

BN.ie

04/12/2006 - 08:29:44

The British government may be forced to pull the plug in the new year on plans for an Assembly election in the North because of the deadlock over policing, ministers were warned today.

As Assembly members prepared to debate a motion accusing Northern Secretary Peter Hain of dictating how Stormont conducts its business, UUP leader Reg Empey alleged the rival DUP were not as keen as his party about a March election because of problems within the party.

Empey also claimed the DUP’s refusal to name a date for the transfer of policing and justice powers, a key demand of Sinn Féin if it is to endorse the police, could result in Mr Hain facing an awkward choice on January 30 when he is supposed to dissolve the Assembly for fresh elections.

Empey said: “I’m not convinced by DUP claims that everything has been resolved by their meeting last Friday.

“As someone who has been through these sort of crisis meetings before, I can tell you all they have done is paper over the cracks for the time being.

“From what we can pick up there are serious problems with this process, particularly on the issue of policing and justice, and the secretary of state may yet face a real challenge at the end of January over whether there should be elections.

“Originally the DUP were pushing for an election. I am not so sure they are as enthusiastic now as they were after the St Andrew’s talks. They have realised it is not going to be as smooth a process as they thought it was.”

The DUP insists Sinn Féin must publicly declare support for the Police Service of Northern Ireland, the courts and the rule of law if there is going to be a power-sharing administration at Stormont.

In an article last Thursday for a republican newspaper, Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams said it was possible for both parties to resolve their differences and deliver power-sharing by March as envisaged by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

However, Mr Adams said he needed a definite date for the transfer of justice and policing powers from Westminster to Stormont, agreement on the type of government department that would handle it and no role for MI5 in civic policing before he could recommend a change in Sinn Féin’s policing policy at a special party conference.

The DUP is adamant it could take years before policing and justice powers are devolved.

Senior negotiators insist there will have to be a credible testing period for Sinn Féin before unionists could have any confidence in a devolved administration handling policing and justice.

As MLAs gathered for today’s debate, Empey said Assembly members needed to assert their own independence from Mr Hain rather than let him dictate their business.

“The way the secretary of state conducted the Hain Mark One Assembly between May and November this year) was to stifle debate and interfere as much as possible,” the East Belfast Assembly member said.

“He vetoed motion after motion properly brought forward by the Business Committee, especially any attempt by us to debate his plans for local government under the review of public administration.

“The first meeting of the Hain Mark Two Transitional Assembly on November 24 also saw the secretary of state trying to stage manage events even down to the trivial detail of who would or would not be allowed to speak, even though the Business Committee had already decided.

“How can public confidence be established in the Assembly if it is seen merely as a creature of the NIO, with no independence whatsoever, even over minor matters?

“How can we establish any credibility that we are capable of taking on responsibility for a huge budget and government departments if we cannot work together here to determine simple matters like debates etc?”

Today’s debate was also expected to focus on Mr Hain’s role in the controversy over whether Ian Paisley fulfilled requirements on November 24 that he should indicate he would be first minister next year.

BN.ie

04/12/2006 - 09:06:31

A committee of MPs will hear directly from neighbourhood justice schemes in the North today why they want state funding despite concerns about how they operate.

Members of the House of Commons’ Northern Ireland Affairs Committee will hear evidence in Belfast from community restorative justice groups operating in loyalist and republican neighbourhoods on controversial British government proposals for state-funded schemes.

Nationalist and unionist parties in the North, with the exception of Sinn F-in, have expressed real concerns that the British government’s plans could be exploited by ex-paramilitaries and used to create a two-tier system of policing in the North.

Representatives from Northern Ireland Alternatives, which operates in a loyalist area, and Community Restorative Justice Ireland, which operates in a republican neighbourhood, will tell MPs how the programmes they run prevent people turning to paramilitaries to carry out so-called punishment attacks.

As the committee prepared for two days of evidence, nationalist SDLP deputy leader Dr Alasdair McDonnell warned Northern Ireland Office Minister David Hanson’s plans could leave some neighbourhoods exposed to the law of the jungle.

The South Belfast MP warned: “Although the new restorative justice protocols have some improvements, they still leave communities exposed.

“The danger of state-paid vigilantes under Sinn Féin’s control remains. That really would be ’political policing’. We owe it to nationalist communities to prevent that.”

Fifteen restorative justice schemes currently operate in republican areas and five in loyalist neighbourhoods.

They are designed to bring the perpetrators of low-level crime face-to-face with their victims to agree an appropriate punishment.

The schemes, of which Sinn Féin has been supportive, have operated until now with private financial backing.

In July, Mr Hanson revised his plans for state-funded schemes after the British government was originally accused of appeasing Sinn Féin by keeping police contact with restorative justice groups at an arms length.

Dr McDonnell expressed concern that in the revised protocols restorative justice groups are now only required to deal directly with the police in writing.

He insisted there must be face-to-face discussions.

The SDLP deputy leader also complained there was no proper complaints system, nor was there a requirement to ensure restorative justice groups were independent and impartial.

The committee will also hear evidence tomorrow from Police Service of Northern Ireland Chief Constable Hugh Orde.