Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

What happens whenever there is a difficulty or even no difficulty is that the Secretary of Government co-ordinates with the heads of the Garda, the Army and other groups on the detail and they can deal with the broad policy positions. That system does work. The office of emergency planning rests with the Minister for Defence. In the event of any difficulty the contingency arrangements are worked out fairly well. It is the Secretary of Government that co-ordinates it. For example, the last big event was that of 11 September 2001. Within an hour and a half a meeting was convened in Government Buildings between all the agencies. That system is set down and it works. The officials keep in touch on a regular basis.

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