Written Answers. - Security Precautions.
David Stanton
Question:
212
Mr. Stanton
asked the
Minister for Defence
the steps the Government has taken to protect the public in the event of biological or chemical agents being released into the environment through an act of war or otherwise; the members of the committee which the Government established to draw up plans to monitor such events; the Cabinet member with overall responsibility for planning and action in this matter; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
[22642/01]
On the evening of the attacks on the US, members of the Cabinet were briefed by the security committee on the security precautions which had been put in place arising from those attacks. They were also briefed on the Department of Foreign Affairs humanitarian efforts to trace relatives who might have been caught up in the attacks.
The security committee includes the Secretaries General to the Government, the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, the Department of Defence, the Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces and the Garda Commissioner. A high level contact group, chaired by Department of the Taoiseach and comprising representatives of the Garda, the Defence Forces and the Departments immediately concerned, was set up to monitor developments and emergency services were asked to ensure their arrangements were fully up to date.
Since then the security committee has met on a number of occasions and the high level contact group has also met regularly. At the Government meeting on 18 September 2001, arising from a report of the contact group, Ministers were asked to ensure that all necessary measures were being taken to monitor and respond to the evolving international situation.
In support of the emergency planning authorities in updating their emergency plans it was arranged that the contact group would seek to identify specific additional threats which needed to be taken on board in revised emergency plans. At a meeting in the Department of the Taoiseach of key Departments and agencies involved in emergency planning, arrangements were made for Defence Forces ordnance experts to assist planning authorities in their review of existing plans to take account, as appropriate, of the chemical and biological weapons threat.
A review of the structures under which emergency planning is conducted has taken place. The attacks on the US have clearly changed the context for such emergency planning. Since the 1980s, the emphasis in planning was on peacetime emergencies, whereas now we are faced with new threats arising from global terrorism. In those circumstances the Government has decided to set up an office of emergency planning in the Department of Defence. The new office will take the lead role in emergency planning to meet the new threat from international terrorism and from any escalation in international tensions, including co-ordination of the responses by the various agencies involved, and exercise an oversight role in relation to peacetime planning in order to ensure the best possible use of resources and compatibility between different planning requirements. The existing lead role of Departments in respect of specific emergency planning arrangements will of course continue. I am, accordingly, the Cabinet Minister with responsibility for the foregoing.
While there is in place an extensive framework of peacetime emergency plans, it is now clear that the assumptions on which emergency planning are currently based need to be reviewed to take into account the possibility, however remote, of chemical and biological attacks on this State and its people or on neighbouring countries which could indirectly impact on this State. The lead responsibility for specific emergency planning functions will remain with the relevant Departments and the high level contact group, established in the wake of the events of 11 September, will in future be convened by the Department of Defence to support the office of emergency planning.
