Transport chiefs give update on Ireland salt supplies - after 2010 debacle caught nation by surprise

Snow in the Dublin Mountains in 2022

Transport chiefs have vowed that the country has plenty of salt and grit to keep people safe amid the latest bitter cold snap.

The nation is set to be blasted with snow from today after Met Eireann widened its weather warnings. Councils across the country will be gritting roads while Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) assess salt stocks.

A TII spokesperson told the Irish Mirror: “Supply remains strong. We were dealing mostly with rain events since the last cold spell, so there is plenty of salt and grit on standby for use.” Average usage for the period January to April over the years 2019 to 2022 was 21,300 tonnes.

A big freeze in 2010 caught the country by surprise as the infrastructure struggled to cope – and salt supplies for roads ran low. There was a desperate scramble with Britain for available road salt supplies as the Arctic cold snap took hold.

Emergency supplies of road salt arrived in Irish ports to replenish stocks which had run dangerously low because of that severe two-week freeze. It even emerged that retailers had a surge in sales of table salt and dishwasher salt from householders hoping to keep their paths clear.

Three separate Status Yellow snow and ice warnings were issued on Tuesday, running from 6am tomorrow to 6am on Friday for some counties. But forecasters today updated and widened its warnings. It pinpointed more counties that are to be affected by hazardous travelling conditions, poor visibility, and icy surfaces due to snow and ice.

A Status Yellow snow and ice warning came into place for Clare, Galway, Laois, Offaly, Tipperary, Westmeath, and Wicklow from 3am tomorrow and will remain until 1pm.

There is also a Status Yellow rain warning for sleet and localised flooding in Carlow, Dublin, Kildare, Louth, Meath, Wexford, and Wicklow from 5am tomorrow until 5pm tomorrow.

A third Status Yellow snow and ice warning comes into effect at 5am tomorrow for Cavan, Donegal, Monaghan, Leitrim, Mayo, Roscommon, Sligo, and Longford.

Met Eireann warned of “sleet and snow, leading to accumulations, most significantly on higher ground” from 5am tomorrow until 8pm. All six counties in the North are under a Status Yellow snow warning from 10am tomorrow (THURS) until 6am on Friday.

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