Bird flu - Officials in a flap inspire no confidence

THE bewildered response of officialdom to the reported finding of a dead swan in Co Waterford does not inspire confidence in Ireland’s preparedness to cope with the threat of bird flu.

As the first meeting of the national emergency management committee takes place today, it defies credulity that the finder of the dead bird on the foreshore at Cheekpoint in Waterford Harbour, where other swans were swimming at the time, had to make no fewer than 10 phone calls before he finally succeeded in contacting an official who said the body would be collected.

Presumably, samples have been sent to Britain for laboratory tests?