A review of the structures under which emergency planning is conducted is taking 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 international terrorism. In those circumstances the Government decided on 2 October 2001 to set up an office of emergency planning in the Department of Defence.
The new office is taking 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 exercising an oversight role in relation to peacetime planning 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 established the Office of Emergency Planning on 4 October, 2001. The office, which includes four senior staff both civil and military with additional support staff to be assigned as required, will be located in the Department's head office in Dublin. The operation of similar bodies in other jurisdictions is also being looked at to benefit from best international practice. I will make regular reports to the Cabinet and the Houses of the Oireachtas in relation to the work of the new office.