Met Eireann says there are no indications that the coming winter will be particularly severe. The 3rd annual Winter Ready campaign is being launched today to provide simple and practical advice to deal with any adverse weather events in the months ahead.

The National Emergency Co-ordination task force - involving a number of State agencies and transport providers - held a meeting in Dublin today to review the plans.

Advice is being made available from a number of sources including Government Departments, An Garda Síochána, the Health Service Executive, Local Authorities and the transport providers through the website.

The main objectives of the campaign are:

• To provide practical advice on how best to prepare for the coming winter
• To ensure the public are aware of where advice and help can be found, if needed
• To reassure the public that preparations are being made and arrangements have been put in place to ensure that there will be a coordinated response to severe weather events.

Advice to the public is also available on Twitter. The account will be tweeting during the winter period to augment the campaign.

The Justice Minister Alan Shatter says the government is preparing for whatever lies ahead, while Met Eireann meteorologist Gerald Fleming says the outlook so far suggests there will be no repeat of the severe snow and ice of winter 2010.