Margaret is Head of the Office of Emergency Planning (OEP), a joint civil military office, which has responsibility to support emergency planning in Ireland and to improve coordination across the various existing national emergency plans. The OEP supports the Minister of Defence as Chairperson of the Government Task Force on Emergency Planning, which comprises those Ministers and/or senior officials of government departments and public authorities, which make a key contribution to the emergency planning process. As Head of OEP Margaret is responsible for the coordination and oversight of emergency planning and provides administrative back up for this work. The OEP manages the National Emergency Coordination Centre located in Dublin.