Northern Ireland’s civil service is seeking volunteers to administer a system of fuel rationing from 75 “strategically located” filling stations supplying “priority” vehicles in the event of major oil shortages.

The system has been in place since the 1974 Ulster Workers’ Council strike, which led to the collapse of the first Stormont power-sharing executive.

The North’s Department for the Economy insisted that the renewed called for civil servant volunteers - set out in a memo circulated earlier this week - was not linked to contingency planning for Brexit.

A spokesman for the department said that the system was “not new” and was a “routine exercise” to bring the volunteer scheme back to the “required capacity” after changes across the Northern Irish civil service with a restructuring of government departments and a voluntary exit scheme.

The last call for volunteers to administer the rationing system is said to have been in around 2010 and 2011. The scheme would, in the event of an oil supply emergency, involve two civil servants being placed at each of the 75 filling stations to ensure fuel is only given to those with “priority” permits and to track demand.