A review of the Mid-Western Health Board's Major Emergency Plan, which provides for a co-ordinated response of the health services in the region if a major disaster occurs, is expected to be completed by the year's end.
The plan, which is activated with the corresponding emergency plans of the Garda and the relevant local authority, was first drawn up in the mid-1980s and is reviewed every five years.
Apart from the ever-present risk of localised accidents occurring such as train, bus or lorry crashes, major flashpoints in the mid-west are the estuary, the two dams on the Shannon and Shannon Airport.
Mr Pat O'Riordan, chief assistant technical services officer with the board, said the main risk in the region had always been the airport. "The reality is that Shannon is the first airport eastbound out of America and the last airport westbound out of Europe.
"If there is an aircraft in any kind of trouble over the western Atlantic, it tends to be diverted to Shannon," he said.
Mr O'Riordan is an expert in the area and author of the book Emergency Planning in Ireland, published in 1992. The current review of the Major Emergency Plan for the Midwest began in September. Issues which have a new importance include posttraumatic stress, now called "critical incident stress," and media briefing measures.
Ongoing communication through regular seminars and exercises involving the key players is an integral part of the plan.
Managing the situation crucially entails controlling road access as ambulances, fire engines and other vehicles rush to an area. A senior garda, an ambulance officer and a fire officer together take charge on the site.
Mr O'Riordan said that although the response to the recent floods had been a normal local authority function, it had concentrated minds on the area of emergency planning and the need to factor in climatic changes with disaster scenarios. A flood in an unexpected area could result in normally secure chemical storage tanks contaminating the environment.
He said the Republic had been fortunate in the low number of major emergencies over the years. Disasters such as the Whiddy Oil terminal explosion in 1979, the Buttevant train crash in 1980 and the Stardust fire in 1981 had not been matched by anything as serious in recent years.
But there have been serious environmental incidents such as the Hickson chemical plant fire on Cork Harbour in 1993, the explosion of a gas tanker at Edgeworthstown, Co Longford, in 1995, and the evacuation of Belmullet residents in Co Mayo last year following a factory fire.
Major emergency plans are based on the Government framework document dating from 1984. "After 16 years, maybe it is time for a review of that plan," Mr O'Riordan said.
The best countries for preparation are Japan, Israel and Canada because all these countries regularly experience either major natural disasters such as earthquakes or forest fires or have major national security issues. "For them it is very real, for us it is a threat that we do not want to happen but that we must be prepared for," Mr O'Riordan said.