#EmergencyExercise- Around 180 personnel from nine different agencies between them worked together at Waterford Airport and off the coast of Hook Head, to assess how well they would respond to a major disaster.

According to Declan Geoghegan, operations manager with the Irish Coast Guard, the "nightmare" scenario would be a stricken passenger ferry with about 1,000 people on board and 100 miles offshore.

For yesterday's simulation, the Naval Service's flagship LE Eithne (P31) was a 'ferry' that had sustained an explosion in its engine room, with 50 army personnel from James Stephens Barracks in Kilkenny acting as casualties. To read more on the exercise, the Irish Examiner has a report.