Hotelier to visit Met Office following his criticism of forecasts

The chairman of North West Tourism, Seán McEniff, has accepted an invitation from weather forecaster Michael Walsh for a tour…

The chairman of North West Tourism, Seán McEniff, has accepted an invitation from weather forecaster Michael Walsh for a tour of the Met Office.

Mr McEniff, who owns a number of hotels, has criticised the Met Office for wrongly forecasting blizzard-like conditions last weekend. He said reservations in his hotels were cancelled as a result.

He claimed that, with all its sophisticated modern equipment, the Met Office should not have been so wrong.

But Mr Walsh said his team's equipment was not nearly as advanced as Mr McEniff believed. "There is a lot of equipment we don't have, unfortunately. There are budget and other limitations. We are a public service that is constrained by a lot of things."

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He said there were strong winds of up to 125km (78 miles) per hour and snow showers as predicted.

"They did not hit every place. I have no issue with that. But there is this expectation that forecasts can be precise and distinguish between Bundoran and Letterkenny and the different hotels that Mr McEniff owns. That simply cannot be done, really. This is part of the problem."

Mr Walsh added that when Mr McEniff was next visiting his Dublin hotels, he would be "delighted" to show him around the Met Office and point out the problems in forecasting.

Mr McEniff said yesterday he would love to see the Met Office and he would accept.

The hotelier, who is also a prominent Fianna Fáil activist and a member of Donegal County Council, said he was overwhelmed by the positive response he received from members of the public over his threat to sue.

Mr McEniff added: "It's a pity there's not an election. I wouldn't need to canvass."