Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome our guests and thank them for appearing before us. I congratulate and thank them for the work they have done over the past couple of years in particular but also on an ongoing basis. We must acknowledge that the public rely on them in the emergency situations to which they respond. It is appreciated.

Apropos of the questions on capacity and so on that have been raised, the witnesses will say that there is a requirement to improve capacity significantly, but do they believe it can be improved sufficiently to meet the kinds of exigency they have in mind in light of what has occurred in recent years? Will the augmentation be sufficient to meet those requirements?