Minister for State, Andrew Doyle would like to extend his sincere thanks to all front line staff who helped keep the people of Wicklow safe during Storm Ophelia.
Minister Doyle said: “This is the first time that a status red warning was ever issued by Met Eireann; I thank all the emergency services for responding to calls for assistance from the public on Monday and Tuesday.
“Wicklow County Council Severe Weather Co-ordination Group kept residents updated on social media platforms regarding road closures and deployed crews to reopen roads.
“All our emergency services, the HSE, volunteers, the Gardaí, Wicklow County Council, Civil Defence, ESB, RNLI, and Wicklow Fire Brigade played their part.
“I commend the crews who were working around the clock to clear fallen trees blocking or partially blocking national and regional roads in Wicklow and a large number of electricity lines.
“There were a number of power cuts throughout the county and I am pleased that most of these outages have now been restored.
“All the agencies in Wicklow worked together to manage their services in order for this storm to have the least impact on residents.
“Thankfully no one was injured in Wicklow and I really believe this is down to residents adhering to the requests to staying indoors.
“Wicklow did not suffer any major infrastructural damage. The full resources of the state will be deployed for the clean-up action.
“While Wicklow escaped the worst of the storm damage, we need to see what lessons can be learned from storm Ophelia, to ensure we are as prepared as we can be for the next major weather event.