As the threat of bird flu increases, questions are being asked about the ability of Irish systems to cope with it - not to mention dealing with the threat of a possible human pandemic at a later stage.
Some virologists believe bird flu could already have arrived here and we should at least be housing free-range birds and putting slaughter plans in place to break the cycle of the spread of the disease. There have been complaints, too, that the Department of Agriculture has not been responding to calls from the public reporting dead wild birds.
These and other issues were put yesterday to the Department of Agriculture for their comment and the answers below are based on those questions.
What practical steps have been put in place to prevent the arrival and spread of the disease - and are they enough?
Since last autumn, the Department of Agriculture has put a contingency plan in place to prevent the disease spreading from wildfowl to the 8,000 commercial flocks.
These measures mainly concern biosecurity around farms and instructions to keep domestic fowl away from water where they could pick up the disease from wild birds.
Ponds or still-water dykes on poultry farms should be drained and poultry farmers have been advised to keep access to their farms to a minimum.
A surveillance system has been put in place and inter-departmental groups are working on the issues involved.
Since the arrival of the disease in France the risk of the spread has increased and so have the controls. Additional restrictions, like the banning of bird shows, have been put in place.
If you come across a dead bird in the wild what should you do?
First of all, it would be unwise to handle it without protective gloves. Then it would depend what kind of bird it is.
A list of the most susceptible fowl, mainly waterfowl like swans, ducks and geese, is to be issued over the next couple of days.
If the bird is, for instance, a small garden feeder dropped on your back doorstep by your cat, the current thinking is that you need not report it.
The department has established a new lo-call hotline to augment its 24/7 service, on 01-6072512.
The hotline number is 1890 252 283 and is a 24-hour service.
The bird will be collected by Department of Agriculture veterinary staff but because of logistics this may not happen instantly, but all birds reported will be collected. Over 650 dead birds have been collected since July last year and they have all tested negative.
Will it be possible to keep the disease out of Ireland?
Because bird flu is being spread by wild birds it is difficult to keep it out.
However, its arrival here does not automatically mean that it will spread to commercial poultry flocks.
Can poultry farmers not vaccinate against the disease?
Yesterday the EU gave the French and Dutch governments the go-ahead to vaccinate flocks in areas where bird flu has been identified.
Here in Ireland, vaccination is not favoured. While vaccine could be obtained for the 80 million birds reared here, veterinary advice is that the introduction of the vaccine could "shed" and give the flu to non-vaccinated birds and could also mask an outbreak of the disease in flocks.
In a worst-case scenario, how would the authorities deal with an outbreak in poultry?
It would be dealt with in exactly the same manner the foot-and-mouth outbreak was handled. Infected farms would be cordoned off and no-go zones would be established. Movement in and out and inside the areas would be controlled by licence only.
How would the bodies of the dead birds be dealt with?
No official decision has been taken on disposal of carcases of infected birds, but it is likely the bodies would be rendered in rendering plants, not buried or burned in open pits.
During the foot-and-mouth crisis, the UK authorities were often accused of not having the same level of interest as our Government. Is there not a fear this could happen again?
There are different circumstances. Bird flu is a public health issue and foot-and-mouth was an animal disease issue.