An emergency meeting will be held at Stormont today to discuss the devastation caused by the weekend floods.

Officials from the Roads Service, Rivers Agency and Northern Ireland Water will meet with members of the Regional Development Committee to assess the impact of the torrential downpour as well as the efficiency of each agency’s response.

The deluge, which caused the closure of the Broadway underpass along the Westlink, rivers to burst their banks, bridges to be swept away and damage to hundred of homes, has led to criticism from some of those affected who were unable to call the relevant agencies for help.

More than 8,000 calls were made to the agencies over the weekend, however many more were unable to get through.

Last night Environment Minister Sammy Wilson defended the Executive’s response to the crisis but admitted that a single emergency telephone number, which he himself called for during the last floods 15 months ago, would have helped.

“Yes, I accept that it would have been very helpful,” the Minister said, “but I hope you understand that things like that don’t get done by the click of the finger.

“There’s considerable technology and work to be done, it’s much more complex than that.”

Regional Development committee chair UUP MLA Fred Cobain hit out at the Executive’s response and has called for a more strategic approach to flooding which he says is becoming “characteristic of Northern Ireland’s climate”.

“The weekend’s torrential rain and flooding was not a freak event, but rather part of a pattern that has emerged over the past few years,” he said.

“The Executive is doing its best to respond to the aftermath of flooding, but surely it is now time for a more strategic approach.

“If, as seems to be the case, outbursts of torrential rain are becoming a characteristic of Northern Ireland’s climate, Government departments and agencies should have plans in place to minimise both the chances of flooding and the disruption which follows floods.

“When the range of departments and agencies involved is considered — DOE, DRD, Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service, Northern Ireland Ambulance Service, PSNI, Roads Service, Rivers Agency, local government — there is a case to be made for a body to co-ordinate not just the response to flooding, but how best to reduce its likelihood.

“The recently published Pitt Report into the 2007 floods in England has emphasised the need

for co-ordinated planning and responses, both in terms of addressing flood risk and in establishing best practice in the event of flooding,” he said.

“Its recommendations should be carefully considered by the Executive and any lessons for Northern Ireland should be learned quickly.”

Mr Wilson said the Executive had learned from last year’s flooding and was far better prepared than last June.

“A lot of lessons were learned from last year,” he claimed.

“The fact that from Thursday onwards we had additional staff in, brought in extra staff for the telephone centres, prepared tens of thousands of sand bags, we put in place and purchased additional pumping equipment for the Fire Service and Rivers Agency.

“But you have got to accept that when you get one month’s rainfall in seven hours there’s a limit to what could be done.”

Regional Development Minister Conor Murphy, who has ordered a full investigation in to the Broadway underpass incident, also defended the Government’s preparation, saying that agencies did meet last week.

“The emergency services did plan for this. They met on Thursday and on Friday. They did prepare and they did communicate with each other.”