Clear and present dangers: The risks the country’s face, and how we should prepare

The government has just published its annual National Risk Assessment – the 2019 edition of which predicted the pandemic. What does this year’s edition hold in store?

Nuclear power may be banned in Ireland, but we import nuclear-generated electricity and the presence of nuclear power generators in Europe and Britain ensures pride of place for nuclear contamination in this year’s national risk assessment

The risk to Ireland from a potential pandemic was there in black and white, for anybody willing to look.

Six months before Covid-19 spilled out of China and stained its way across the global map, the Irish government’s annual National Risk Assessment for 2019 outlined “major pandemics” as a key risk facing the country.

The “worst-case scenario” was identified as an influenza mutation, which could cause “death and illness on a significant scale” and “disrupt ...