{"id":270644,"date":"2026-01-29T19:39:48","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T19:39:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/270644\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T19:39:48","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T19:39:48","slug":"met-eireann-director-meets-minister-for-housing-after-he-criticises-weather-forecaster-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/270644\/","title":{"rendered":"Met \u00c9ireann director meets Minister for Housing after he criticises weather forecaster \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Met \u00c9ireann<\/a> director Eoin Moran and Minister for Housing James Browne<\/a> have held talks in the wake of the Minister\u2019s criticisms of the forecasting service during Storm Chandra<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Mr Browne said in a statement after their meeting that he \u201crecognises the important work that our meteorological teams and forecasting service do\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Minister said on Wednesday Met \u00c9ireann needed to improve its communications and he suggested the forecaster had withheld information that would have helped with flood preparations. <\/p>\n

His comments on South East Radio sparked huge frustration within the forecaster.<\/p>\n

Met \u00c9ireann is responsible for providing weather warnings for the general public but releases information regarding flood risks to local authorities whose job it is to alert potentially affected communities. <\/p>\n

Briefings for the Minister and his officials were swiftly organised for Thursday morning in the wake of the Minister\u2019s remarks on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

In a statement issued on his behalf afterwards, his Department said: \u201cThe director [Mr Moran] has assured him that the requisite flood forecast data was fed into the bigger system including all of the relevant stakeholders ahead of the event.\u201d <\/p>\n

It added: \u201cMinister Browne is very appreciative of all parties working together to tackle the current impacts of Storm Chandra, particularly as floods are complex and difficult events which require input and analysis from multiple stakeholders.\u201d<\/p>\n

The statement said the Minister was \u201cvery determined that a joined-up approach across Government is central to the overall response to significant weather events and their impacts. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs with all such events, there will be learnings for the future. The Minister is determined that any such learnings will be incorporated into how future events are dealt with.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"WaterWater from the river Slaney surrounds a bench on the bank of the river during Storm Chandra, in Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, on January 28th. Photograph: Paul Faith\/AFP via Getty <\/p>\n

Earlier, Met \u00c9ireann defended itself from the criticisms which came after the minister visited flood-hit Enniscorthy in his Wexford constituency.<\/p>\n

Mr Browne said Met \u00c9ireann seemed to have \u201cguarded\u201d information.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome State agencies seem to think that it\u2019s their duty to somehow withhold information,\u201d he said on air.<\/p>\n

Met \u00c9ireann said in response that its services, operations and engagement with all stakeholders were \u201calways evolving to meet current and future needs\u201d.<\/p>\n

The forecaster said it indicated during a technical briefing of the National Emergency Co-ordination Group on Monday afternoon that there would be a \u201chigh likelihood\u201d of river flooding and surface flooding in parts of Leinster and Munster.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe expected impacts and flooding risks, including mention of river levels and soil saturation, were communicated to the public through a commentary on our website, social-media channels, bulletins and media interviews,\u201d a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

They said Met \u00c9ireann was focused on its role of \u201cmonitoring, analysing and predicting Ireland\u2019s weather, climate and flooding, and supporting emergency planning responses to weather events such as Storm Chandra\u201d.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Saturated areas could see more flooding as new rain warnings come into effect, says Met \u00c9ireannOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Mr Browne said on radio that the forecaster needed to review how it provided warnings, saying there needed to be a greater use of \u201cjudgment calls\u201d in warning the public.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s based on a mathematical formula, whereas in other countries they use the mathematical formula, but then they also make a judgment call,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Asked about the level of warnings issued, Met \u00c9ireann said it issued a series of rain and wind warnings in advance of Storm Chandra based on the \u201clatest model guidance\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cMet \u00c9ireann takes into account the considerations of the expected impacts in its warnings.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe numerical criteria are guidelines but impacts from the meteorological parameters which depend on the location, recent weather conditions and duration of the event are also considered when producing a weather warning.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn any individual weather event, not every location in the warning area may experience the same degree of weather or impacts,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

Mr Browne\u2019s comments were labelled \u201cextraordinary\u201d by some Opposition TDs, including Labour<\/a>\u2019s climate spokesman Ciaran Ahern.<\/p>\n

\u201cAttempting to blame Met \u00c9ireann for a communications failure during Storm Chandra is ridiculous given his own failure to host a storm preparedness media briefing in advance of the storm arriving on our shores,\u201d Mr Ahern said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Met \u00c9ireann director Eoin Moran and Minister for Housing James Browne have held talks in the wake of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270645,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,7116,6189,1191,43,40,38,41,39,18335],"class_list":{"0":"post-270644","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-james-browne","10":"tag-labour-party","11":"tag-met-eireann","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-top-news","14":"tag-top-stories","15":"tag-topnews","16":"tag-topstories","17":"tag-weather-events"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}