Three months after the September 11th attacks on the United States, the Government has received the first detailed plans for how the State will respond in the event of a national emergency arising from international terrorist attack.
The Minister for Defence, Mr Michael Smith, one of the most experienced of the Government ministers, has been chosen as the co-ordinator of the State's response to the threat from terrorist attack or other major disaster following an attack on Britain or the Continent.
Last week he presented a report to Government on the progress of the Emergency Planning Task Force (EPTF), the group set up to ensure that the State has adequate apparatus to deal with emergencies.
While the group of experts assembled under Mr Smith's chairmanship has decided there is no immediate perceivable threat, the Minister has directed that all the State services be ready.
The Task Force has set out what arrangements should be in place within each Government Department for dealing with major emergencies.
Mr Smith identified the need to ensure that all State bodies can pull together in the event of large-scale emergencies.
The State's emergency agencies already exercise together regularly and Mr Smith has set out to ensure that all the other elements of Government understand their role and how to react in the event of a major disaster.
It is understood Mr Smith was impressed by the state of readiness of the emergency services and wants to ensure that Government Departments that normally don't have a role to play in emergencies understand what they will have to do and ensure that they maintain a capability.
There should be "no gaps", he is understood to have told the Task Force.
While the Task Force's evaluation was that there was no "current credible threat" to Ireland from any international terrorist group, the situation must be kept under permanent review and all Government agencies should be ready if a threat emerges.
The eventualities considered by the group in the post-September 11th context include any attempt at mass poisoning through agents like anthrax and attacks on major population centres or industrial installations.
However, the decision to distribute 10 million iodine tablets indicates that the main pre-occupation will be how to contend with an attack or failure from some other event of the Sellafield nuclear re-processing plant across the Irish Sea in Cumbria.
It is understood a tender for the supply of the iodine tablets will be completed this week and these will be supplied in the coming months.
The tablets will be sent to every household in the State along with an information pack outlining the Government' s response to national disaster and instructing the public on how to react.
The Government has already acquired some 300,000 doses of smallpox vaccine as a response to any bacteriological threat.
Another immediate response will be the establishment of an "air exclusion zone" around the chemical plant at Ringaskiddy, Co Cork. This ban on flying in the air space over the plant is being undertaken by the Garda and the Aviation Authority under the Department of Public Enterprise.
Cork produces 60 per cent of Ireland's toxic waste and Ringaskiddy was recently identified as the site for a £75 million incinerator because it contains the main cluster of industries in the pharmaceutical and chemical sector resides.
Companies located there include Pfizer's, Johnson & Johnson, Glaxo SmithKline Beecham (SKB) and Seagate.
The Task Force has studied how the public should be alerted in the event of a disaster or major attack. This will involve the use of national and local broadcasting media to spread the news rapidly.
There is also consideration of using sirens. Talks are to take place with RT╔ and other broadcasting companies about the dissemination of information in the event of a crisis.
An Office of Emergency Planning (OEP) will take the lead role in emergency planning to "meet the new threat from international terrorism and from any escalation in international tension, including co-ordination of responses by the various agencies involved in the national emergency response".
It will exercise an "oversight role in relation to peacetime planning in order to ensure the best possible use of resources and compatibility between the different planning requirements," Government was told.
The OEP reports directly to the Emergency Planning Task Forces, which is chaired by the Minister for Defence.
The Office, which has met 13 times already, includes representatives from the Departments of Defence, Health and Children, Justice, Environment and Local Government, Public Enterprise, the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland and Departments of the Taoiseach and Foreign Affairs.
Initially the Task Force concentrated on the national response to the series of anthrax scares which griped the country. There were some 180 of these scares, over 90 per cent of them arising from innocent concern about white powders or other suspicious substances.
The Task Force reported last week that the experience so far involved the constant redefining of existing protocols between emergency agencies and this "has resulted in a more refined response procedure that has been adopted by State Agencies [Garda, Army (EOD) and Department of Health and Children] tasked with responding to these threats".
The Garda are preparing prosecutions in respect of a small number of anthrax hoax cases.
The Task Force has also reviewed the emergency protocols in relation to the possibility of chemical and or biological attacks on the State "or on neighbouring countries which could have a direct impact on this State attacks on or accidents at nuclear facilities which could effect the State".
Its report, finalised last week, states: "In relation to the possibility of an attack or accident at a nuclear facility on the west coast of Great Britain, Minister Smith sought details on the various response protocols in existence within the EU.
"Operating through the Department of Health and Children the Emergency Planning Task Force has authorised the purchase of a supply of iodine tablets which will be distributed nationally to every household.
"The iodine tablet distribution will be coordinated to coincide with the national distribution of an information leaflet by the Department of Public Enterprise, advising the best way to respond to the dangers posed by airborne radioactivity."
The Task Force also reviewed Irish Airspace security and the possibility of extending the number of no fly zones to include a limited amount of vulnerable industrial facilities operating in the State.
Mr Smith is understood to have been particularly concerned about the processes for activating emergency resources in response to emergency situations.
It is understood he insisted there be clear guidelines on the mechanisms available to identify the existence of a large scale emergency; the communications processes with the public; existing legal powers for the public order and control available to Departments and agencies and what legal issues need to be addressed; as well as the identification of other contingencies.
He was also insistent that the public should have full confidence in the State's emergency planning.
The Minister also emphasized that all plans and protocols being developed to deal with any national emergency be based as far as possible on practical common sense solutions.
For the time being the Emergency Planning Task Force will continues to meet on a weekly basis. It will make a full report every three months to Government.
Jim Cusack is Security Correspondent of The Irish Times