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'Simply a cop-out': Should businesses be forced to shut during a red alert warning?

People were being urged to stay indoors, but business groups say it should be up to individual employers whether to close.

BUSINESS GROUPS HAVE said that it shouldn’t be essential for workplaces to close during a time of a red alert weather warning, despite the warning this week urging people to stay indoors.

Before the storm hit the country, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said that people should heed the warnings given by the authorities while Minister Eoghan Murphy said that the “onus is on the employer to put the safety of staff at their forefront”.

The Taoiseach also said, however, that employers should make their own choice on the matter and that a “blanket instruction” on all businesses to close would be inappropriate.

A proposed Sinn Féin bill would make it compulsory for employers to close its place of business during a red alert, and not penalise their employees for doing so, but it has not received government support.

What is a red alert?

A Met Éireann red alert is one which advises people to take action.

Here is its definition:

The issue of red level severe weather warnings should be a comparatively rare event and implies that recipients take action to protect themselves and/or their properties; this could be by moving their families out of the danger zone temporarily; by staying indoors; or by other specific actions aimed at mitigating the effects of the weather conditions.

Prior to this week’s nationwide red alert, the previous similar alert issued was during Storm Ophelia in October 2017, where three people died.

Authorities were abundantly clear in their advice ahead of the worst of the storm this week.

Varadkar warned in a public address that in a blizzard scenario it could be “total wipeout” outdoors, and that between 4pm on Thursday and 12 noon on Friday the country is on “red alert”.

National Emergency Coordination Group chair Sean Hogan was even more unequivocal. He said on Wednesday: “Do not be out there from 4pm tomorrow. This is like Ophelia, it is a different type of safety concern but it is a safety concern.

If people need to travel they need to consider how they will be home safely by 4pm tomorrow.

He said employers will need to consider whether it will be safe to ask employees to come to work over the coming days.

“We’re hoping the damage won’t be like what it was with Ophelia but we are in uncertain territory here,” said Hogan.

He said that if people are out and about in the weather on Thursday and Friday they might get disorientated and lost. He noted there were a number of deaths of people outdoors in 2010.

Sinn Féin wants this kind of advice in a red alert warning formalised in legislation. Under the bill, an employer would be required to, in the event of the place of work being subject to a red weather alert, “close such place and make reasonable measures to inform all employees to stay away from it for the duration of that warning”.

Another provision would be to “ensure that an employee who stays away from such place of work for the duration of a Status Red severe weather warning is not penalised because of such action”.

Sinn Féin Imelda Munster TD said: “This bill will provide for the safety of employees during certain severe weather warnings. It will enhance public safety and ensure the safety of rescue service personnel during such a weather warning.

There was a significant level of confusion in the aftermath of Storm Ophelia regarding what actions businesses in the private sector and self-employed persons should take during an extreme weather warning… As legislators we must now take measures to guide employers, protect workers and strengthen the powers of emergency services in the case of future warnings.

Disagreement

Business groups, however, think that such measures would go too far.

While groups such as Ibec and Isme urged employers to heed the government’s warnings, and treat the safety of their staff with the utmost seriousness, some feel a blanket ban on a business opening in such a weather event goes too far.

Graeme McQueen, head of public affairs at Dublin Chamber, says that businesses by and large heeded the advice and took sensible measures in given the weather conditions.

He told TheJournal.ie on Thursday: “Ultimately it’s up to the individual business in terms of what they decide to do. However, the warnings that have been issued by the various authorities are clear and should be adhered to.

The view of Dublin Chamber remains that people come first in this situation. Given the seriousness of the weather warnings, we would encourage employers to look after their staff – particularly given the lack of public transport available.
For the most part, common sense has prevailed, with a lot of companies allowing staff to work from home. This will be the case again on Friday.

ISME CEO Neil McDonnell told TheJournal.ie that any proposals to enforce the closure of businesses in such events was unworkable.

He said: “We don’t believe it would be appropriate to order businesses to shut when there is a red alert warning.

Who would be responsible for deciding which businesses to shut, and which to leave open. Many ‘non-essential’ workplaces are really important to our daily lives.
Bakers, convenience stores, forecourts, HSE outworkers, man-in-van services, utilities services; all of these become ‘essential’ when we need them. Invoking some law to direct the shut-down of everything would simply be a cop-out.

McDonnell added that workers are already protected under the Safety Health and Welfare at Work Act.

Read: Taoiseach urged to tell employers to pay staff who can’t make it in during storm

Read: What’s the difference between ‘The Beast’ and ‘Storm Emma’?

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    Mute Gaius Gracchus
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    Jan 11th 2013, 4:05 PM

    So they have entered the Renaissance period,only another 600 years to go lads

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    Mute Michael J Collins
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    Jan 11th 2013, 4:46 PM

    Gaius
    You should recognise the huge advance this is for Saudi Arabia. Criticism is just a churlish and unhelpful contribution.

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    Mute Gaius Gracchus
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    Jan 11th 2013, 4:50 PM

    Howya Mick :)

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    Mute dublinlad72
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    Jan 11th 2013, 5:12 PM

    @Michael,

    Yeah… You shut up!

    :-P

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    Mute Anto de Chav
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    Jan 12th 2013, 10:24 AM

    Chronologically Islam is about 600years behind the Christian west so your comment is spot on….

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    Mute Peter O Foyle
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    Jan 11th 2013, 3:51 PM

    Of course … they all have lovely bottoms

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    Mute willy stryker
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    Jan 11th 2013, 4:05 PM

    And he’s gonna marry all of them.

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    Mute Chris Massey
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    Jan 11th 2013, 4:21 PM

    Peter you would happily motorboat those Saudi chicks!!

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    Mute the lost lenore
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    Jan 11th 2013, 4:40 PM

    30? That must be one big ass sammich he’s looking for.

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    Mute CABK
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    Jan 11th 2013, 3:51 PM

    Disgusting patriarchal country.

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    Mute Ruairi O' Sullivan
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    Jan 11th 2013, 5:37 PM

    And Ireland is a beacon of decency, respect and honesty!

    People in glass houses……..

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    Mute CABK
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    Jan 11th 2013, 6:19 PM

    Perspective Ruairi! If I were to walk in a street in Saudi Arabia with a man that is not my relative I could be arrested for being a prostitute (me by the way, the man is fine its obviously the womans fault). Ireland is by no means perfect but I feel lucky to live here in comparison to how women are treated in the middle east/asia.

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    Mute Ruairi O' Sullivan
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    Jan 11th 2013, 7:44 PM

    Fair point carb…..

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    Mute Dom Morgan
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    Jan 11th 2013, 10:09 PM

    You would not be arrested for being a prostitute and the man would not be fine. You would both be in same trouble.

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    Mute Martin Sinnott
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    Jan 11th 2013, 4:06 PM

    Will the Pope follow !

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    Mute ManOnTheStreet
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    Jan 11th 2013, 5:36 PM

    Of course he will. Right after he catches that flying pig.

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    Mute Ruairi O' Sullivan
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    Jan 11th 2013, 5:39 PM

    Maybe he’ll allow women to do more than clean the church and cook the priests dinner…………

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    Mute Lieutenant Worf
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    Jan 11th 2013, 5:48 PM

    @ Ruairi – I presume you’re alluding to the myth that all priests have housekeepers. This is false. Second for the bigger houses that have they are employees who are paid. Third how many people do you know employ a male housekeeper? Your argument is a nonsense.

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    Mute dublinlad72
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    Jan 11th 2013, 6:30 PM

    @Mr Worf.

    You shut up.

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    Mute Ruairi O' Sullivan
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    Jan 11th 2013, 7:24 PM

    @Mr worf

    My argument? What argument. I was stating a fact that in the eyes of the church, women are for little more than cooking and cleaning.

    If I were to “argue” the point, I would bring some facts to the table, like how im the early christian church, there ‘used’ to be women priests and even women popes. I would argue that most ancient religions were matriarchal as we were all born from women.

    But I’m not arguing the point as still in Ireland, there are morons who believe a story written and rewritten over thousands of years to be factual.

    These morons ignore the screaming evidence that this “story” is not even original but copied from the story of Isis, written over 2500 years before jebus fell out of his virgin, but married mother! (Look it up, also the Noah story was copied from Greek mythology, zeus wiped man from the earth in flood)

    These same morons accept that their so-called savior is responsible for all the good in the world, but the bad is their fault.

    ………………..rant over……..I DARE a Jehovah witness to call to my house today

    These morons have pumped countless monies into

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    Mute dublinlad72
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    Jan 11th 2013, 7:43 PM

    Ruairi,

    That was beautiful.

    Brings a tear to this Atheist’s eye.

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    Mute Ruairi O' Sullivan
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    Jan 11th 2013, 8:00 PM

    @dublinlad

    Anything I can do to help the poor initiated escape their conditioning.

    I forgot to mention that in the original writings, Jesus was born around April, but the church changed it hundreds of years later to make it easier to convert ” pagans”.

    If I may quote a great man…….

    ‘Ah pidy da food’…..Mr T (B.A Baracus)

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    Mute dublinlad72
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    Jan 11th 2013, 8:14 PM

    Where have you been all my life?! Haha.

    I often do wonder why on earth people believe some of the tripe that the Church says.

    Honestly!, a bunch of celibate old men, who have not changed their ways in over 2,000 years, trying to tell the world how to live. Don’t even get me started when they take a moral high ground… Baffling!

    But hey! Maybe one day people will all wake up and think…. (Play from 1:10)

    http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=1b2_1320116014

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    Mute Gaius Gracchus
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    Jan 11th 2013, 8:55 PM

    Thanks Ruairi,saved me typing all that!

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    Mute Gaius Gracchus
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    Jan 11th 2013, 8:59 PM

    Another point is that in the early Roman church popes were allowed marry,but that was stopped because Rome got pissed off with their kids inheriting their wealth and land,they wanted to keep it all to themselves,something that’s conveniently brushed under the carpet

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    Mute Ted Power
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    Jan 11th 2013, 4:03 PM

    They can sit at the table providing they lay it and make some nice cakes first!

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    Mute Rory Conway
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    Jan 11th 2013, 4:22 PM

    And serve both before clearing away and washing up.

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    Mute Jamie Mccormack
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    Jan 11th 2013, 4:37 PM

    Responsible for countless human-rights abuse’s, the maltreatment of women, the impoverishment of their people etc. whilst they themselves are disgustingly-wealthy… Not a nice bunch. However, they seem to get on very well with the Bush family.

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    Mute graham galvin
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    Jan 11th 2013, 4:45 PM

    who are equally not a nice bunch.

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    Mute RobertOMaingain
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    Jan 11th 2013, 4:56 PM

    Friend works there said its like the Dark Ages

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    Mute Kieran Fitzgerald
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    Jan 11th 2013, 3:56 PM

    Well, that’s the beginning of the end.

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    Mute kingstown
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    Jan 11th 2013, 4:20 PM

    Maybe Mary Coughlan would like to go to Saudi and join that Council. One way of getting rid of her

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    Mute Michael Hayes
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    Jan 11th 2013, 4:08 PM

    It’s all downhill from here… But seriously, a step in the right direction at least. Once they don’t introduce “quotas” like we’re planning too.

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    Mute David Hearne
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    Jan 11th 2013, 4:12 PM

    At least it’s a step in the right direction

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    Mute Mick Jordan
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    Jan 11th 2013, 9:12 PM

    In fairness this a huge step for the Saudis. I know many of you will criticise me for saying so. But the treatment of women in Saudi is not the fault of the royal family but of Saudi culture as a whole. The Saudis living in the hinterlands are extremely conservative. They have treated their women folk in this manner for thousands of years long before Muhammad was even born. And they do not like change. The Royal family are only a symptom of the culture as a whole. The Talibans treatment of females is the same. Its going to take centuries for them to alter their way of thinking. We in the west have only given the vote to women 100 odd years ago. Up to the seventies here if a woman was working in the civil service she had to leave the job when she got married. She was expected to be a home maker and mother. And that was societies general view.

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    Mute padraig
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    Jan 11th 2013, 5:59 PM

    Steady on Saudis. Next, you might be allowing women to drive!

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    Mute Irene Ryan
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    Jan 11th 2013, 4:24 PM

    That’s good of him a real gent

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    Mute Willie Penwright
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    Jan 11th 2013, 5:32 PM

    Those medieval misogynists would be history without American and European weapons.

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    Mute john dilllon
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    Jan 11th 2013, 5:14 PM

    Too be fair ,the lads down the pub didn’t see this coming, but reckon it’s a welcome move

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    Mute dublinlad72
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    Jan 11th 2013, 6:30 PM

    Are you Richard Lennon in disguise ?

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    Mute RobertOMaingain
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    Jan 12th 2013, 12:11 AM

    If he is former US special forces he is…lol.

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    Mute Jonathan McDade
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    Jan 11th 2013, 4:06 PM

    Saudi Arabia they call International Women’s Rights Day, Tuesday!

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    Mute Joe Sixtwo
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    Jan 11th 2013, 8:01 PM

    A disgusting regime and vile society.

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    Mute ellen gough
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    Jan 11th 2013, 8:32 PM

    thank goodness! any change for the better is good!

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    Mute Gus Whearity
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    Jan 11th 2013, 6:23 PM

    A step to far!!!!

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    Mute Larry Murphy
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    Jan 11th 2013, 7:02 PM

    Where is far? Too much to ask?

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    Mute RobertOMaingain
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    Jan 12th 2013, 6:48 AM

    Despite all this zionist inspired rhetoric over Iran at least there they can vote (since 1963), drive their own cars as well as taxis and are members of parliment.Saudi doesnt recognize the state of Israel either.

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    Mute Tommy Hornblower
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    Jan 11th 2013, 5:46 PM

    God bless that man

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    Mute Kieran Harvey
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    Jan 11th 2013, 9:33 PM

    Well one have to commend the ‘no female drivers’ rule at least! :-P

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    Mute C.P. Horan
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    Jan 11th 2013, 7:59 PM

    No ladies day in the Saudi golf clubs though can’t be all bad!

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    Mute Niall Lonergan
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    Jan 11th 2013, 11:41 PM

    Biggest mistake of his life!

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