The State is "totally unprepared" for an outbreak of bird flu, the incoming president of the Irish Medical Organisation Dr Christine O'Malley has claimed.
While the Government and the Health Service Executive said a plan was in place to deal with a flu pandemic, the plan could not be implemented because there is no structured out-of-hours public health doctor service, she said.
This meant the contacts of anyone who fell ill outside office hours could not be traced in a systematic way to prevent infection spreading, she said.
Dr O'Malley was speaking ahead of the IMO's annual conference, which begins in Killarney today. However, research published online by the Lancet yesterday stressed European nations are well prepared to deal with a human pandemic of bird flu.
The study was based on an analysis of the preparedness plans of 29 countries in Europe.
France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and Britain had the best overall plans. The schemes were judged on planning and co-ordination, surveillance, public health interventions, health system responses, maintenance of essential services, communication and putting plans into action.
The research was led by Dr Richard Coker of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He said Europe "has the resources, the political commitment and most of the countries address planning along World Health Organisation guidelines," he said.
Responding, Dr O'Malley said: "we have all kinds of wonderful plans on paper ... If avian flu arrives in this country we will not know what has hit us, we are so unprepared," she said.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the joint committee on agriculture said yesterday he would write to RTÉ to complain about remarks by Irish chef Richard Corrigan on the Late Late Show about the poultry industry. The London based chef criticised Irish supermarket and battery-farmed chickens on the show on March 24th. Chairman Johnny Brady said: "It's disgraceful, the Dublin 4 gang has no interest in the industry. It's agreed by everybody that we will make a complaint to RTÉ."