Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

A number of recommendations were made to the task force arising from the weather events that took place last year and early this year and these are being taken on board. They are cross-departmental recommendations in the sense that they do not specifically apply to the Defence Forces. They require different Departments and local authorities to approach matters in a particular way. I do not believe it would be appropriate for the Department of Defence to take over matters because some of the skill sets in these areas are within that Department while others reside within other Departments. The emergency planning approach in Ireland to date has developed on the basis of what is known as the lead Department principle. This means that each Department is responsible for planning for and responding to those emergencies which will fall within its remit. In this context, there are certain emergencies, for example, in which the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government is the lead Department. It would be my job as chairman of the taskforce to ensure that matters are duly co-ordinated and other assistance required from other Departments is provided.

The lead Department would be involved in making decisions and the taskforce, in a sense, is a backup to it. The lead Minister on environmental issues is the Minister, Deputy Hogan, not me. The taskforce would, if there was a major emergency derived from weather or another difficulty, meet and ensure the necessary co-operation took place.

I do not want to comment on difficulties that arose during the lifetime of the previous Government. I am doing what I can as chairman of the taskforce to ensure that we have the maximum co-ordination and co-operation. I think, in fairness, it also has to be acknowledged that occasionally weather events can occur that are a great deal more severe than may have originally been anticipated.

It is always easy to blame Governments for not predicting the weather completely correctly or predicting the consequences of a weather event. It is important that the recommendations made are implemented. I would emphasise that in the context of other weather events such as the fires we experienced during the summer months. Again, we were assured they were dealt with speedily. There was co-operation between the relevant local authorities and the Defence Forces.

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