Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The Deputy will be aware that emergency planning is a separate issue which comes under the aegis of the Department of Defence. The Department deals with contingency planning in that area and what the military would be required to do to assist in the event of any such attack taking place. Considerable work has been done in the emergency planning area. The office of emergency planning was set up shortly after the events of 11 September 2001 to co-ordinate the work of the various emergency services in preparing contingency plans. The task force on emergency planning, which is chaired by the Minister for Defence, meets frequently to assist in that role. If the Deputy has further queries on the policies formulated since then, he should direct them to the Minister for Defence. The national security committee informs us of high level security matters, but we do not get involved in the operational aspects.

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