Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am standing in for Deputy Niall Collins. First and foremost, I thank Mr. Spain and his delegation for the comprehensive presentation. It would be remiss of all members not to acknowledge the standing of the Civil Defence organisation across the country, where the work it does is recognised in local communities and where its volunteers are clearly identified and recognised in the communities they serve. During the inclement weather experienced nationwide in 2009 and in 2010, members saw at first hand the invaluable work Civil Defence does. In rural Ireland, small isolated communities certainly had reason to be deeply grateful to Civil Defence for coming to their assistance in circumstances that involved real human hardship. One cannot but be impressed by the figure supplied by Mr. Spain of 8,000 man-hours during that terrible crisis with the Tit Bonhomme, which shows the scale of the commitment. Civil Defence also is to be commended on the type of training it evidently is undertaking with its volunteers, I refer to the work it has done on pre-hospital training and the FETAC awards it has been acquiring and so on.

I note Mr. Spain has welcomed the return to the Department of Defence. I am thinking somewhat of Sir Humphrey, because I do not believe the Civil Defence board ever strayed very far from the Department of Defence when one considers the composition of the board. When the Bill was introduced, the then Minister of State, Mr. Brennan, seemed anxious to engage the participation in Civil Defence of outside agencies. I note the participation of the volunteers on the board, the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland and so on. Whereas one fully accepts the reality and pragmatism of the move back to the Department of Defence, from which the board never really strayed far, in the new manifestation that will exist for Civil Defence once this Bill is passed, where will the opportunities exist for the volunteers to influence the course of the work of Civil Defence? Is Mr. Spain satisfied that the board will be able to engage freely with other Departments in the way that it could during in its period of autonomy, if we could call it that?