This evening the new person in charge of the Emergency, Sean Hogan, didn’t know that Minister for Education, Batt O’Keefe, had closed the schools for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday next week. Matt Cooper had to tell him on Today FM.

Sean Hogan had been having meetings all afternoon with the other people in charge of the emergency but they had not decided to close the schools.  Batt O’Keefe himself fresh from the hairdressers then appeared on the radio to say he had decided to close the schools and that his officials had been meeting with the man in charge of the emergency all afternoon and sure he should know and sure everyone was united and knew what they were doing.

Snowbound as I was I then turned on the Six One news,  ok I was looking for Paul Cunningham’s hat – he had a new one today, when I saw John Gormley and others speaking in front of a special EMERGENCY backdrop.

Next week the Oireachtas is set to resume (Committees only) and on Tuesday the Joint Committee on Environment, Heritage and Local Government will meet in Committee Room 3, Leinster House to discuss the Emergency Management Group and the response to the flooding late last year, I wonder with they be bringing the backdrop with them!

PS. Has anyone seen Enda yet in 2010?

Update: No press statement from him or news coverage of anything he has said since January 1.