Emergency calls to Limerick council during Storm Eowyn routed through to sunny Portugal

SOME people telephoning council’s emergency number for support during Storm Éowyn were being put through to a call-centre in Portugal, it has emerged.

At this month’s council meeting, a number of members shared experiences from their constituents, and themselves, that they were being connected to the Iberian Peninsula during some of the worst weather to hit Limerick in decades.

Councillor Adam Teskey said during the storm, when calling the local authority emergency line on behalf of a constituent of his who was stuck in a car park in Rathkeale he was “flabbergasted” to learn it was being answered almost 3,000 kilometres away, where January temperatures average 20 degrees Celsius.

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He claimed the agent in Portugal struggled to connect with a colleague in Limerick to have the bollards dropped in the car park at Rathkeale’s Palatine Centre.

“The whole essence of a local authority is we deal with local issues locally in an expedient manner. I think it’s an absolute joke we are ringing overseas to deal with an issue which is only three miles in the road from my home house,” he said.

Council director general Dr Pat Daly acknowledged the problem and pledged to investigate it.

He said there were local agents available, and said he will investigate why Cllr Teskey’s call was taken in Portugal.

“It could have been just in the rotation of the queue,” he said.

Cllr Teskey’s party colleague, Cllr Stephen Keary added he had received a phone call from someone in a jeep locked in the same car park.

Fortunately, the Croagh councillor said he had a key to drop one of the bollards and allow the man to leave.
“But that’s not for me as a councillor to do. Like Cllr Teskey, I rang the same emergency number and some guy living in Shanghai or somewhere answered me because I hadn't a fool’s clue of what he was saying.”

Mayor John Moran said in general it is better in emergency situations like Storm Éowyn that things are handled locally.

“I do maintain, and I hope this is a shared view, that this will be by far better managed by local agencies all working together here in Limerick rather than having to make phone calls to Portugal, Dublin or wherever,” he said.