Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We are talking about volunteers and not paid employees of the Department of Defence. When a person joins Civil Defence, he or she must complete an application form. There is a certain amount of personal information that he or she must submit to the board and now the Department. This has been the case since the setting up of the board in 2002. If a member of any local authority has concerns about the work being carried out on behalf of the community by any member of Civil Defence, he or she should go to the Garda if the information is relevant to that body. I can assure the Deputy that it is a matter of data protection. It is not very fair for us to give personal information, for example, health issues, to every member of a local authority. This is the reason we give the responsibility to the county manager or a person he or she designates on his or her behalf.