Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

The answer to the Deputy's first question is "no". Our only responsibility relates to Army material transported by the Army or on behalf of the Army by civil aircraft. That is where our responsibility ends. The responsibility for the matters referred to by the Deputy lies with the Department of Transport.

However, we have a responsibility in the event of an emergency. As Minister for Defence, I am head of the emergency planning task force, on which there is a later question. My job as chairman is to co-ordinate the response to various projected emergencies.

One such emergency would of course be an accident involving an aeroplane at an airport because of the presence of explosives or as a result of a crash etc. We have very detailed plans to deal with such a contingency, and we have exercised those plans on a number of occasions. I personally attended one of the exercises at Dublin Airport about 12 months ago and I attended an exercise in Shannon much more recently, although I cannot remember the exact date. That was quite an extensive exercise, which went on for most of a day.

On advice given to the aviation authorities, the Department of Transport is a member of the emergency task force, which I chair. There is clearly much interaction between members of the emergency task force, which meets every four or five weeks. A back-up group to the emergency task force consists of officials from various Departments and there is much interaction there. If the Department of Transport or any others responsible for such matters wish to consult with our people, they can do so either at a meeting of the emergency task force or at a meeting of the back-up committee.

See this speech in context