A task force structure similar to that used by the Department of Agriculture and Food to combat the spread of foot and mouth disease (FMD) is to be set up by the Department of Health to deal with the SARS threat, writes Seán MacConnell, Agriculture Correspondent.
This emerged yesterday when the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mr Walsh, published a detailed contingency plan and operations manual for the handling of any future outbreak of FMD here.
He told journalists attending a celebration lunch to mark two years since Ireland was given the "all-clear" from the disease, that there were some similarities in the way a Government would handle both diseases.
Expressing "total confidence" in the way the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, was handling the SARS situation, Mr Walsh revealed that the first meeting of a new task force, similar to that established by him to combat FMD, would hold its first meeting this morning.
He said the Government task force set up in 2001 had played a vital role in inter-departmental and inter-agency matters and was chaired by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern.
The successful management of the foot-and-mouth crisis in Ireland, with the full support of all sectors of society, had saved the country a great deal of money.
"The INDECON report which was published in March 2002 found that, had Ireland's efforts to prevent the further spread of FMD in 2001 not been successful, the adverse impact on GDP could have reached €5.6 billion representing 5.41 per cent of GDP with job losses of up to 12,000," he said.
"The FMD crisis of 2001 was a most significant event, from a variety of perspectives," the Minister said.
"The threat posed by the disease held open the prospect of real and substantial economic damage, not alone in agriculture but across a number of sectors, with attendant social consequences throughout the country," he said.
"Successful management of the crisis was characterised from the very outset by a recognition and acceptance by all sections of society of the challenge which we faced and of the potential consequences of failure, and by a sustained commitment by the entire community to winning what we termed 'the battle against FMD'," he said.
Paying tribute to the Opposition parties in the Dáil which had been most supportive in the time of crisis, Mr Walsh said sectional interests were set aside in forging a genuine national response to the situation which was faced.
"The level of public support for the measures taken to prevent the spread of the disease was unprecedented, indeed the level of public acceptance of inconvenience, disruption of normal life and, in some cases real cost, were truly remarkable and a credit to the Irish people," he said.
Mr Walsh said that arising out a major in-depth review of the management of the 2001 crisis, a decision had been taken to draw up a contingency plan and operations manual to deal with any potential outbreaks in the future.
Some of the problems which had occurred during the crisis, particularly the "losing" of 30 sheep which had been imported from Britain, had been addressed with new traceability systems, where each animal was now tagged and could be identified.
Mr Walsh said there was a greater threat now to Ireland from foot and mouth and other exotic diseases, because of the increased amount of travel being undertaken by Irish people and because of the growth of ethnic groups in Ireland, some of whom attempt to import foods which could be contaminated with the disease.