New emergency unit planned to tackle crises

The Cabinet will this month be asked to approve plans for a new rapid response unit to manage the State's emergency services in the event of a terrorist attack, nuclear disaster or natural epidemic, such as avian bird flu.

Plans for the unit are part of a new strategy developed over the last year between the Department of the Environment and "blue light" services such as the Garda, the fire services, the Health Service Executive, local authorities and the Defence Forces.

Details of the new unit were revealed by Minister of State Batt O'Keeffe at the Chief Fire Officers' Association annual conference in Carrick-on-Shannon, Co Leitrim. Mr O'Keeffe said the strategy, to be known as the framework for major emergency management, would be brought to Cabinet this month by Minister for the Environment Dick Roche and he envisaged the new unit being in place within two years. The aim of the strategy is to bring the State's emergency services up to international best practice.

Mr O'Keeffe told the conference yesterday that in recent years "most European countries have engaged in review and development of their major emergency or civil protection arrangements, especially following the emergence of new threats related to terrorism."

The key objective is to enable the "blue light" services to manage large-scale "events" and to assist the communities affected to work with the Defence Forces and voluntary emergency service providers, such as the civil defence.

News of the proposed strategy was welcomed by the chairman of the association Jim Dunphy, who said it was long overdue. Mr Dunphy told the conference that Government policy in relation to the fire services had altered on three occasions since 2001.

Planning key to emergency response

Preparations for an emergency response to a terrorist attack on London had begun almost 10 years before the bombing of public transport in the city last July, a conference of chief fire officers in Leitrim heard yesterday.

Roy Bishop, deputy commissioner of London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority, said preparation and training for such an event had affected the success of the rescue operation.

In the Irish context, Minister of State Batt O'Keeffe said another "Stardust type" disaster could not be ruled out, but a proposed framework for emergencies would improve the State's response.