There’d better be no plane crash — without national emergency plans

BATT O’KEEFFE, Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, has great hair. Not just good hair. Great hair.

Which explains why he wasn't that keen on donning a fire-fighter's helmet for the photographers at the Chief Fire Officers Association Conference last week, after he'd delivered a speech outlining Government policy on the fire service.

He didn't stay for the speech that followed his, either, which was probably just as well. It might have depressed him to hear the speaker me point out that Ireland currently sits at the heart of a cluster of circumstances conducive to the creation of a major emergency, and is so unprepared for such an emergency that were it to happen it could escalate into a national disaster.