FURTHER HEAVY snowfalls are expected today with accumulations of up to 15cm in parts of the country.
Severe snow storms which hit the country yesterday, particularly eastern and southeastern counties, caused major travel disruption, hazardous driving conditions, disruption of electricity and phone services in some areas, and the closure of hundreds of schools.
Forecasters say a gradual thaw may set in next week but warned of freezing conditions and more snow before that.
A weather front was forecast to move in from the Atlantic in the early hours of this morning bringing fresh accumulations of snow across much of the country.
The additional falls of snow of five to 10cm in places will occur in many areas with mountainous regions to get a further 10 to 15cm on top of the snow banks built up in recent days.
The snow storms are not expected to die out in eastern counties until this afternoon.
While temperatures could reach as high as eight degrees today along the Atlantic coasts, nightfall will see a return to sub-zero temperatures.
The National Roads Authority (NRA) said more than half of its stockpile of 80,000 tonnes of salt had already been used. NRA spokesman Seán O’Neill said the prudent management of supplies was expected to see the country through the current cold snap.
The State was using about 3,500 tonnes per 24-hour period to maintain the national network of primary and secondary roads.
However, last night had seen a record 5,000 tonnes used on roads, primarily across Leinster. Further pre-ordered shipments of salt from Egypt and Turkey were due to arrive in two weeks, he said. “We’re not salting every road in the country, our job is to maintain the national network,” he said.
The Government’s emergency taskforce has said farmers could take part in spreading grit on roads which were untreated.
Over the past few days the Irish Farmers Association had said that farmers and community groups willing to spread grit on roads were being rejected by local authorities on the basis of health and safety legislation. The taskforce yesterday confirmed that there is no legal impediment to local authorities distributing grit to farmers to clear roads which are not being treated by council gritters.
Local authorities will be given an additional €15 million to cover exceptional costs associated with the extreme weather, Minister for the Environment John Gormley has said.
Dublin city manager John Tierney said this week that the council had spent three times its winter road maintenance budget during the snows last January. The city, one of the areas worst hit this time, received no additional funding as a result of that expenditure, Mr Tierney said.
The new funding would not be distributed evenly across all the State’s city and county councils but would go the local authorities who were most in need of “supplementary funding,” Mr Gormley said. His department had begun to contact local authorities to assess which were in greatest need.
“The current cold weather is starting to break records, it has been almost 40 years since we have had snow and ice so early in the winter, and it is unusual for the cold weather to persist so intensely without respite. And the forecasts tell us this cold snap will last for at least a further week,” he said. Local authority staff had been working around the clock with other State bodies and transport agencies to ensure disruption was minimised, he added.
Public transport providers have urged passengers to travel as early as possible today as further snowfalls and freezing conditions impact on the weekend rush. Yesterday afternoon services to Dundalk and the southeast were particularly crowded with passengers standing with luggage in the corridors, doorways and in lavatories.
The hundreds of schools which have closed around the country this week will not be obliged to make up the number of days lost due to closures during the big freeze, the Department of Education has said. Primary and secondary schools in Donegal, Dublin, Louth, Meath, Galway, Wexford and Waterford were among the worst affected while only a few schools were shut in Clare, Limerick, Kerry and Mayo.