Catherine Ardagh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the witnesses for coming in and Ms Nolan for her presentation. It has given us a real feeling of how the organisation works and the spirit of volunteerism. I have a few questions, the first of which is regarding drone use. Like my colleague, Senator Craughwell, and others, I commend the Civil Defence. Obviously, someone in the organisation really bit the bullet and decided to run with increasing the education of members with regard to drone use and piloting drones. The issue Dublin Airport Authority is having with drone use is well known. Does the Civil Defence envisage having to purchase and work out how to get training in anti-drone equipment, much of which is available? It seems the Civil Defence might be well placed to do so given its excellence and years of working professionally in the area. It would be interesting if Ms Nolan could elaborate on that.

Another issue I wish to ask about is funding. I know from Ms Nolan's presentation that the funding for the organisation is €5.4 million per annum it gets a small amount from the Dormant Accounts Fund. Is that capitation funding or is it year-on-year funding? Do the volunteers get expenses? The reason I ask about expenses is to try to figure out how many active members are in the Civil Defence. Based on who has received expenses in the last six months, we could probably figure out how many active members are in the organisation. That is more out of curiosity.

As a committee, we always ask what we can do to support an organisation. The witnesses may have asks for the Chairman at the end of the meeting.

I commend the Civil Defence for all the support it gave the State during Covid-19. Many of the professional volunteer organisations went above and beyond in terms of helping out during the pandemic. Ms Nolan might be able to tell me exactly what type of support that entailed. I do not know if the Civil Defence was involved in taking samples. I ask Ms Nolan to elaborate a little on that.