Speaking on RTÉ’s Saturday with Katie Hannon, Mr McPartlan said it is done “every couple of years” by the Department of Environment, Climate, and Communications, involving stakeholders, to discuss how to manage in the event of any major disruption to fuel supply.
But this time, he said, it factored in any potential impact on fuel supply of the war in Ukaine.
“They plotted the scenarios around the current horrible situation in Ukraine – that makes sense. But we don’t want people to think there’s any likelihood of this happening any time soon,” Mr McPartlan said.
“It’s a drill, it’s an exercise; it’s designed to plan for the worst-case scenario, and that’s what we should do.
“It’s prudent, it’s a proper function of Government to do that in my opinion.”
Mr McPartlan said he would “be lying” if he said there was no risk of this happening, but added that this does not mean it is a strong possibility.
He said that if there were a catastrophic interruption to the supply of fuel, ambulances, fire engines and garda vehicles still need to be able to move about.
“So this list is not a new thing, it’s been there all along,” he said.
“It’s designed for that worst case scenario, what you would do if there was a very, very significant drop in supply.”
Mr McPartlan said they have been consulted about the list of filling stations but have not seen the final product.
He said there is a “very strong NDA” on the contents of the list.
