Mr. Fergal Conroy:

With regard to recruitment, we actually have a joint operation tomorrow morning with a local county fire service in Offaly and the Civil Defence. We have joined up together and have transition year students coming in for three quarters of a day to see the fire service and the Civil Defence equipment. We will be doing hands-on CPR in training.

I can answer another question in that line as regards personal development. Volunteers join Civil Defence in some cases as a volunteer of 18 or 19 and when they move on through college or whatever, they end up working with the fire service or using it as a stepping stone into the HSE, the National Ambulance Service, or into actual hospital settings. There is a good stepping-stone arrangement there for people to move on into the emergency services area.