Mr. Eugene Clonan:

We have approximately 60 buildings around the coast, which we inspect and manage. In the past 20 years, we have built 16 new stations to replace the old stations. Back 20 years ago we only had the old rocket houses. I am unsure whether committee members know what the rocket houses look like, but they are basically garages. They were built at the turn of the 20th century. A cart and some equipment were kept in these garages. That is what we inherited when the State was formed. Then, 20 years ago we started to spend more money on these buildings. Of the 60 buildings we have, 16 have been replaced with state-of-the-art buildings. I read a newspaper cutting which referred to a lack of toilets, sanitary facilitates and so on. That was a reference to the old rocket houses, of which there are 16 around the coast. Included among the 44 units are rocket houses that are sub-units to the main unit. They have a main meeting room and so on whereas the rocket house on the coast will be used as a storage area. The OPW carries out all our maintenance and building projects. It has inspected all these external buildings in respect of the sanitary and toilet elements. We cannot do anything with some of the buildings because there is insufficient surrounding land to extend or there may be planning issues. In other cases, there is a main building and the old units are used for storage only, which means it is not necessary to install sanitary facilities. We are looking at these units and in cases where we have identified that sanitary facilities or running water need to be provided, we have an active programme to implement that. Where we cannot do that, we put in place temporary facilities.

Where we cannot do that, the best thing is for the local team to use that building as a garage, which it is, and meet in the local hotel or community hall. We will fund that so people are out of the weather when they are doing their training. I mentioned the three-function and dual-function units and they mostly have good facilities. It is the single-function units that have problems. There are 16 of those. We prioritised busy buildings but we are now looking at those 16 units to see where we can improve conditions.