The Government has defended the decision of the National Emergency Coordination Group not to hold until yesterday its first plenary meeting in response to the adverse weather and flooding of the last month.

Fianna Fáil social protection spokesman Willie O'Dea said this morning that he was "gobsmacked" that the group had not met until this month. He was responding to an interview given by the group's chair Sean Hogan this morning in which he disclosed its first formal meeting had been held yesterday.

“I find that staggering quite frankly,” said Mr O’Dea. “We have been on red and orange alert since before Christmas and large parts of the country have been flooded as a result of the weather.

“This is a national emergency if ever there was one. Why did this national emergency group not meet earlier to coordinate the overall response and ensure that the [appropriate responses were implemented] at local level.”

A spokesman at the Department of the Environment said that the group has been operating fully throughout the crisis but that a formal plenary meeting had not been required until now.

He said local authorities had the principal responsibilities for responding and the work of the national group was triggered when it was assessed that an extra or national dimension was required in the response.

He said the meeting yesterday was triggered by the spate of flooding events over the course of the weekend, as well as the possibility of major rivers flooding because of persistent heavy rains and storms.

Mr O’Dea said it was quite clear that the responses at local level had been inconsistent and there was a need for a national approach since the flooding began.

"There has been a lot of confusion at local level. The response has been slow and tardy and uneven in places. Even still in Limerick there is confusion in terms of food distribution," he said.

The Department of the Environment said it was a misconception to present the group as only having convened. “The group has been working on a daily basis and liaising with local authorities and the director (Sean Hogan) has been talking to the Minister of the Environment (Phil Hogan) on a daily basis,” said the spokesman.

“The initial responsibility is at a local authority level. If (local authorities) feel they are overwhelmed, then consideration is given to trigger a national response through the emergency coordination group.”

The spokesman added that just because a plenary meeting was not held until yesterday did not mean the group was not in touch on a daily basis. He also pointed to the situation where rivers were badly swollen throughout the country as a trigger for a wider national response.

For his part, Mr O’Dea argued that the group should have been much more visible in the past month.

“The group was set up with equipment, computers and facilities in the Department of Agriculture headquarters. The idea was that it would meet at the very hint of such a crisis.

“The Government has a role in calling this group together. The relevant Ministers should have called them in to meet, with the threat of weather and the alerts we had over the past four weeks.

“I am gobsmacked they did not meet until yesterday. It is beyond belief.”

The emergency coordination group was centrally involved in the efforts to source gritting salt and clear th e roads during the prolonged period of heavy snowfall and wintry conditions over the winter of 2009 and 2010.