EXTREME WEATHER

and towns could be lost to climate change. “There is the risk that severe and repeated climate related impacts could cause displacement of local populations,” it says.

The risk assessment warns that Ireland is at risk from natural disasters and storms associated with bad weather. Several parts of the country, including Cork and Louth, have suffered serious flooding in recent years – and the cost of repairing damage has run into tens of millions of euros.

The government experts warn coastal erosion is expected to be a serious issue in the coming years.

It says that many key items of infrastructure - including power stations, wastewater treatment plants and railway tracks – are close to or on the coast and that leaves them vulnerable to damage.

It says we will have to invest heavily in better flood defences to defend and protect that infrastructure. They say there is a significant risk posed by extreme weather and serious storms.

They warn access to transport, clean water, energy and the telecommunications network are all at risk from extreme weather. unknown disease that could cause another pandemic. And health experts around the world are already planning for it.

Last week, the World Health Organisation published an article where an expert predicted Disease X would be some sort of influenza strain.

Nicola Lewis, Director of the Worldwide Influenza Centre at the Francis Crick Institute in London said: “I think the chances that Disease X will be an influenza virus are probably greater than for any other known pathogen group that I can think of.”

The latest government risk assessment says another pandemic is likely – and it will have a significant impact on Irish life.

“The experience of the COVID-19 pandemic has shown that in addition to the potential for a pandemic to cause death and illness on a significant scale and increase morbidity and mortality, pathogens with pandemic potential can result in severe disruption to social and economic activity.”

In April 1986, the Soviet nuclear reactor in Chernobyl in northern Ukraine exploded – and caused a radioactive cloud to spread all over Europe, including Ireland.

The effects of the disaster are still being felt today – and a repeat is one of the nightmare scenarios for safety and security officials here and elsewhere.

The illegal Russian invasion of

Ukraine has significantly raised the risk of another nuclear accident.

Just last month, a Russian suicide drone struck the Zaporizhzhia power plant in Ukraine. The International Atomic Energy Agency described that attack as a serious incident – and warned it had the potential “to undermine (the) integrity of the reactor’s containment system”.

But it’s not just Ukraine that Irish authorities are worried about – our nearest neighbours also use nuclear power.

A 2016 report by the Environmental Protection Agency examined the risks of an accident at the Sellafield nuclear site on the north east coast of England.

That report found there was a 10 per cent chance of radioactive cloud from any explosion there heading towards Ireland.