A former chief fire officer has said the decision to end 24-hour accident and emergency capability at Ennis General Hospital threatens the region's capability to respond to a terrorist attack or a major disaster at Shannon airport.
Johnny Flynn, an Ennis town councillor (FG) and former chief fire officer for Co Limerick, said both Ennis and Nenagh were supporting hospitals for Limerick Regional Hospital in the event of a major emergency.
"Shannon, like all international airports, faces potential terrorism risks and is also the designated emergency landing airport for practically all of North Atlantic air traffic, which places the midwest at greater risk," Mr Flynn said.
The decision to curtail A&E services was contrary to the Government's major emergency development programme, he added.
Mr Flynn, a consultant engineer, said that with motorway infrastructure, the 900-metre Shannon River Port Tunnel linking Limerick and Clare due to be completed by 2010 and Shannon Estuary shipping traffic, Clare could be deemed to have a "most likely" status of a major emergency occurring from a risk assessment basis.
He has raised his concerns with Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea and has written to Minister for the Environment John Gormley.
Mr Flynn said the decision by Minister for Health Mary Harney a fortnight ago was "both a serious threat to current civil protection capability and runs contrary to the major emergency development programme approved by the Government".
Ennis-based Dr Michael Mulqueen, of UCD's School of Politics and International Relations, who has just completed a study of Irish security policy, said the Office of Emergency Planning, based in the Department of Defence, and the National Steering Group on Emergency Planning in the Department of the Environment, needed to examine the issue closely.