Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

So far, the Civil Defence has come across as an extremely professional, forward-thinking organisation. I am not one bit surprised. I have a couple of questions. My colleague, Deputy Berry, brought up in the Dáil some time ago the need for legislation to protect employment while volunteers in the Defence Forces are deployed overseas. Similarly, is there protection in place for Civil Defence volunteers who withdraw from the workforce to engage in search and rescue missions, which can sometimes take weeks? I am interested in that.

Does the Civil Defence have a written code of practice that its members have to sign up to when they become volunteers? If someone goes rogue as a volunteer, does the organisation have a system in place? I hate to be negative because everything today has been positive. If somebody is a problem, however, does the Civil Defence have a system to terminate his or her volunteer role and have that person withdrawn from the system?

Finally, I will go back to the good old days of the Green Goddess vehicles in the Civil Defence. I know we have come a long way since the Green Goddess. Does the Civil Defence train with local fire services and make use of the them for training purposes? Has it dealt with oil fires, particularly given that a number of places around the country carry bunker sea oil? If that takes off, it can be pretty terrible. Similarly, we have many gas storage areas. The thought of a boiling liquid expanding vapour explosion, or BLEVE,in one of these areas horrifies me every now and then. Does the Civil Defence prepare for such events? I will leave it at that. I thank the witnesses very much for the way they answered the questions. I look forward to hearing their responses.