Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I come from the same area as Senator Wilson, as many in the room know. I was attending another committee meeting and missed the introductory remarks. It was unavoidable; I could not miss the meeting. I left it early to come here.

Having missed the presentation, I want to say that we in Cavan are proud of the Civil Defence. It has an excellent group. A good number of those involved come from the same area of the county I am from and I know a lot of them personally. They do extraordinary work and are very visible. A great number of people have been consistently involved in it down through the years. It is important in this context to affirm, commend and publicly acknowledge that. The presence of the Civil Defence in Cavan, and its membership, profile and work it does, are outstanding. That is implicit in all that Senator Wilson said. He is telling the witnesses that we want there to be further support for the Civil Defence, such is the quality of its work.

I wish to ask one or two questions. There has been a wonderful spirit of volunteerism in Ireland historically and traditionally.

Volunteering is very good for the individual who is volunteering and, obviously, for society. There is camaraderie among volunteers. There is a whole structure in place. It has been very much central to our State, culture and people for years. It goes back to the whole concept of meitheal and everything like that down the years. How is the spirit of volunteering now? There is a belief that in recent years, a greater individualism has developed and that volunteering is declining due perhaps to more complex working arrangements, people having families and mortgages and so forth. How is the Civil Defence finding the volunteering spirit? Is it diminishing or holding up? How is it impacting on the Civil Defence? I apologise if Ms Nolan addressed that in her opening remarks.

There have been many questions about training. I was going to ask about it but it would be repetitive to do so. I assume there is a personal development aspect. Apart from manual handling and the physical skill set, I presume there is an element of personal development for volunteers as they go along. It is important that they gain confidence and new skill sets and competencies. Ms Nolan might comment on how that is managed as volunteers go along.

I acknowledge the great work the Civil Defence did nationally and locally during Covid-19. The value of the Civil Defence was particularly visible to everybody during that time. Tragically, we are not free of pandemics yet, and there is risk of more in the future. Deputy Berry mentioned the awful and appalling vista of another Chernobyl. God forbid that that should happen. The Civil Defence will be very relevant in all these contexts. My only reason for making sure to come down to the committee room was to say how proud we are in County Cavan of the Civil Defence and the great work it does.