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16th October 2017
11:06am BST
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has spoken live on air this morning about the severity of Hurricane Ophelia.
The Taoiseach was in a meeting since 9.45am this morning in the Department Of Agriculture with the National Emergency Coordination Group discussing the action in place for the hurricane.
The press conference was shown live on RTÉ News moments ago, with Varadkar stating that Ophelia is a 'very dangerous storm' and that the government's main priority is to ensure everyone's safety.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is asking people to stay indoors and to check on their neighbours #Ophelia pic.twitter.com/U3nPx5boKf
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) October 16, 2017
Leo Varadkar said, "The last time we had a storm this severe, 11 lives were lost. So our number one priority today is to avoid any injury and any loss of life.
"We expect powerful gusts of wind and violent gusts of wind in all parts of the country."
He advised everyone to stay indoors and to watch out for the elderly and to reminded people of the dangers of the aftermath of the storm.
The Taoiseach said, "Essentially we're asking people to take four important pieces of advice. The first is to stay indoors wherever you are until the storm has passed.
"To check on your neighbours and elderly relatives particularly those living alone.
"To bare in mind while some parts of the country has storms not yet that bad, that it is coming your way and it is a national red alert and applies to all cities and all counties and all area.
"Also to bare in mind even after the storm has passed there will still be dangers. There will be trees on the ground, power lines down and certainly to take care in that regard."
He said that the National Emergency Coordination Group will meet three times each day.
header image: IrishBuildingOL/Twitter
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