James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to make a suggestion. The United Kingdom, for example, has Cabinet Office Briefing Room A, COBRA, which provides a set cabinet structure for reacting and the UK Government can meet in crisis and bring in the relevant stakeholders. In Ireland, there are systems in place to cope with weather events that are under the remit of the Department of Defence, which was changed previously from local government. While I know the Minister cannot answer my query here, I suggest that it would be prudent to create a similar unit to COBRA in this country after what has happened.