> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.dublininquirer.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Residents near D15's "Chemical Hill" want better information about emergency alerts - URL: https://www.dublininquirer.com/residents-near-d15s-chemical-hill-want-better-information-about-emergency-alerts/ - Published: 2026-09-15T22:25:07.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-15T22:25:07.000Z - Description: A false alarm from the Barclay Crop Protection plant near Mulhuddart in July confused some locals, who didn't know what it was, what it meant, or how to get more information. - Author: Michael Lanigan - Tags: Fingal An A4 notice was fixed to the steel fencing outside the Barclay Crop Protection plant on Tuesday morning. It was posted outside the agrochemical factory in the Damastown Industrial Park on the outskirts of Mulhuddart in mid-July, showed the date on the sign. At about 12.15am on Saturday 12 July, the site’s major incident siren had been inadvertently activated due to a technical issue with the alarm system, it said. No incident had occurred, and at no point was there any risk to employees, the local community, or the environment, it continued. But, the company recognised that the siren, which lasted for about an hour, was extremely loud and had caused significant concern to locals, it said. The company offered an apology. It was like an air raid siren, said Luke Daly, a resident of Mulhuddart. “The dog was going 90.” Said Maria Murray, a resident of Blanchardstown village: “I’m a night owl and I should’ve been in bed, but I wasn’t.” She figured something had gone down in the Blanchardstown Shopping Centre, she said. “That would be closer to me than any of these industrial areas.” WhatsApp group chats were “popping off”, Daly said. “I actually saw what I could only describe as misinformation spread in real time. We’re being attacked because of the EU presidency! It’s a car alarm! It was just wild.” Eventually, people figured out it was the plant in Mulhuddart, said Murray. “Somebody made a video driving past the plant, and all the bells and whistles and sirens and lights are going.” People weren’t panicking, she said. “But they were annoyed because they didn’t know what this was. It could be serious and nobody had any public information.” Daly rang around. He checked in with Gardaí and Fingal County Council’s helpline, he said. “It kinda emerged that it was a false alarm. But we didn’t actually get more certainty on the story until maybe the next day.” Fingal County Council has has an emergency plan but its strategy for communications had not factored in dealing with false alarms, said Aoife Sheridan, a council senior executive officer, on 3 September. “We’re looking at that in terms of how do we communicate false alarms,” she said, at the Blanchardstown-Mulhuddart/Castleknock/Ongar Area Committee. It hasn't arisen before, she said. “So it’s a good lesson for us to learn from this particular lesson.” A spokesperson for Barclay Crop Protection said that it had distributed information relating to the false alarm to the relevant authorities, and to the public through a statement posted on local noticeboards in Mulhuddart Community Centre and Corduff Sports Centre. But, they said, the company is also investigating more effective methods of communication in the event of any future false-alarm events. ## **High concentration of Seveso sites in Dublin 15** Fingal County Council currently has 10 "[Seveso](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seveso%5Fdisaster?ref=dublininquirer.com)" sites, industrial sites that handle, or store, large quantities of dangerous and hazardous substances, and so are subject to stricter regulations given the potential for major accidents. That's one more than when county’s development plan for 2023 to 2029 [was published](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24695541-fingal-development-plan-300823%5Fv4%5Fweb/?q=seveso&mode=document&ref=dublininquirer.com#document/p656), in April 2023\. Six of these are in Dublin 15, the development plan says, of which four are classified as “upper tier” – so those with the largest quantities of hazardous substances – while two are classed as “lower tier”. Since that report, one more Seveso site, an Alexion AstraZeneca facility, has opened in Blanchardstown’s College Business and Technology Park, [according to a June council report](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28623699-supplement-final-publish-of-reports-to-the-public-08062026-1700-county-council/?q=seveso&mode=document&ref=dublininquirer.com#document/p301). For some residents of Dublin 15, the wail of the false alarm from the Barclay plant was the first time that they clocked that the sheer number of these hazardous sites in the area. Murray has lived in different spots around Dublin 15 since 2005, she said. “And in all the time, it has never been brought to my attention that these plants exist in the area, or what the alarms sound like, or what you should do.” ## **No clear plan** Just before the false alarm, councillors had asking questions about what, exactly, is supposed to happen when there's an incident at one of these sites. Labour Councillor [Mary McCamley tabled a motion](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28623699-supplement-final-publish-of-reports-to-the-public-08062026-1700-county-council/?q=seveso&mode=document&ref=dublininquirer.com#document/p301) at the council’s monthly meeting on 8 June, asking the council's chief executive, AnnMarie Farrelly, how the council would act if an accident was to occur. The community was lucky to have a company like AstraZeneca, McCamley said, but she also was worried the public wasn’t sufficiently kept informed about these sites. “I worry that the other sites and this site are growing exponentially without the public being aware of what chemicals are being used near their homes,” she said. Council officials Róisín Burke and Mary Egan wrote, in a report responding to McCamley’s motion, that “upper tier” sites are required to prepare an external emergency plan for action outside the establishment. “Plans are in place for all upper tier sites in the Fingal County.” Lower tier sites are subject to regulations, but don’t require off-site plans, the report said. At the meeting, McCamley said she understood that external emergency plans are prepared every three years “where both on-site and off-site effects are examined in the unlikely event of an incident occurring on such sites”. The plans then undergo a public consultation, she said. But, it wasn’t clear to McCamley what a local is to do in the event of such an incident, she said. “Are residents told to stay in and keep their windows closed, or do the competent body go around with megaphones?” A public information leaflet put out by Barclay Chemical Manufacturing Ltd about its [2019 external emergency plan](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28623730-scan-to-me-from-1060433-2019-02-04-120629/?ref=dublininquirer.com) sets out what should happen in the event of a major accident there. Locals will hear an air-raid siren and are advised to go indoors, switch off ventilation systems, close doors and windows, listen to the local radio and await information from emergency services, [it says](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28623730-scan-to-me-from-1060433-2019-02-04-120629/?ref=dublininquirer.com), before inviting people to submit any comments via post to Dublin Fire Brigade. Egan said the council has prepared the external emergency plan for action in the event of any incidents at these sites. "And the plan includes the arrangements for coordinating the off-site actions and resources." The operators are subject to regulation, she said, “and the council partakes in annual training exercises at the sites”. The plans are “robust” and exercised regularly, she said. “Dublin Fire Service, on our behalf, are satisfied all of the emergency plans are in place.” McCamley accepted the council’s report, but said she still wanted to know what would happen if an accident happens. “How am I being consulted? Who tells me what to do if a big cloud of poisonous gas comes across my house?” she asked. A council spokesperson said on Tuesday evening that the Fingal Major Emergency Plan is available on their website and sets out arrangements for communications "which will be applied by the Principal Response Agencies in response to the declaration of a major emergency." ## **Fixing the false alarm** The alarm had been ringing out for ages before word spread in local WhatsApp groups that it was a mistake, Murray said. “The big issue here is the complete vacuum. No information.” There was no single reliable source for people to find updates, she said. It was hard to get good or valid details, said Daly. “People were getting panicked because they didn’t know anything.” “People were genuinely unsure,” he said. “In the absence of certainty, speculation thrives.” There should be a text alert or similar to notify people to keep their doors and windows closed, he said. “It took so long to get the information as well, which was worrying.” The response to the false alarm was very slow, Aontú Councillor Ellen Troy said at the area meeting on 3 September. Troy tabled a motion at the meeting asking for the council to write to the Dublin Fire Brigade and ensure there is a robust communication plan for false alarms. People were nervous, she said. “You know, they were closing their doors and afraid to let their children out. The outcome wasn’t made clear to them quick enough.” McCamley said this is what her motion from June was seeking. “These are dangerous chemicals. So I mean, nothing happened that night. We were all standing around.” An alert scheme, be it for real emergencies or false alarms, is needed, she said. On this particular occasion, because a major emergency wasn’t declared, the communication plan within Fingal’s emergency plan wasn’t brought into play, said Sheridan, the senior executive officer. “So that’s a lesson learned from this in terms of false alarms.” A spokesperson for Barclay Crop Protection said on Tuesday that, as well as investigating more effective means of communication in the event of any future false alarm, they have replaced the faulty activation switch that triggered the alarm. They are also putting measures in place to reduce the likelihood and duration of any future false-alarm activations, they said, “including a double lock activation system and increased frequency of maintenance and testing”.