So, @MichealMartinTD @LeoVaradkar @EamonRyan and @SimonCoveney have approximately 9-10 days left to prepare #Ireland🇮🇪 for the economic, financial, social, political and psychological impacts of a 🇷🇺-🇺🇦 war that could escalate into a war that threatens all of Europe. 🧵 1/
Where is the Government of Ireland's strategy for managing public safety and civil defence? Where are the planning and preparedness measures for possible incidents involving, for example, risk to Irish-registered aircraft crossing eastern Europe? 2/
Or Irish citizens caught in the conflict zone or in Russia during wartime? Or extra naval protection for ferries crossing the Irish and Celtic Seas? Is the Government going to protect Ukrainian assets in Ireland from Russian 'hybrid' attacks (and vice versa)? 3/
Have the @DefenceForces @Naval_Service and @IrishAirCorps prepared to either mine Cork Harbour and Berehaven Habour to deny them to belligerents or, conversely, demine them? Are the Mount Gabriel Eurocontrol (European air traffic control system) civil radar domes protected? 4/
What contingencies and redundancies (backups) have been planned and prepared for possible Russian sabotage of transatlantic subsea communications cables in Ireland's exclusive economic zone, and shore stations? How will Ireland be affacted? 5/
Has the Government of Ireland prepared a plan to receive possibly tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees? What accommodation? Where? What humanitarian aid will we send Ukraine and its neighbouring EU countries, and how? 6/
How would Ireland's diminished @DefenceForces cope with a low probability but nevertheless possible operation by the Russian military in or on sovereign Irish territory? What are the Rules of Engagement? (They need prior political Cabinet-level approval.) 7/
How does the Government intend to stem any sudden impulse to panic buy petrol, diesel, food and medicines? What lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic are being applied to preparedness for potential fallout from war in Europe? 8/
What is the status of Ireland’s strategic oil reserves? Is the National Oil Reserves Agency onboard with planning? What are the levels of NORA's emergency oil stocks? (There are figures for 2021, but are current levels enough to sustain Ireland if supplies are limited by war? 9/
Are the population of Ireland being informed by Government of strategies and plans for a national emergency? Or is the Government planning on informing people when it's too late and the economic, social and psychological impacts are already being felt? 10/
While no one expects Irish people to have to mount a "total defence" against a low probability Russian invasion of Ireland, people still need to be informed so that they can prepare themselves, and their children, for the potential horrors of war on the Continent. 11/
In 2018, the Government of Sweden distributed a comprehensive 'be prepared for war' public information leaflet to all 4.8 million households in the country. Why hasn't this happened in Ireland? There is still time. 12/ 
It's not rocket science 🚀 Ireland has defence planners 🪖 But more than that, Ireland has disaster management and other professionals whose job it is to prepare for and respond to disasters, whether they be natural 🌡️🌊🌨️ or human-made ⚔️💥 So where is the public strategy? 13/
Hopefully diplomacy will win out. But 🇷🇺 could attack 🇺🇦 in a new phase of war in just 9-10 days time. That gives the 🇮🇪 Government very LITTLE time to put together plans and inform the public through a coherent public strategy. There WILL be social and economic impacts. End/
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
