Mr. Dennis Keeley:

Each local authority will determine its risk profile and the training profile sets out what disciplines it will focus on, which varies. In recent years, there has been a strong focus on emergency management and the requirements under the framework for same. Rest centres featured highly in that. Notwithstanding that, many local authorities still engage with the Civil Defence on firefighting capacity, predominantly around pumping capacity.

The Senator mentioned oil fires and BLEVEs, which pose particular hazards and are particularly dangerous. They do require a high level of competency and constant training. It is a huge challenge for volunteers to be actively involved in that. It is not considered appropriate that there would be any focus on that. The support that the fire side of Civil Defence has traditionally given is around pumping water. As I say, that focus varies from local authority to local authority. That focus changes on that interaction. In Dublin, for example, a unit is based in the fire service training centre at the O'Brien Institute on the Malahide Road. Civil Defence has a unit there. They use the facilities of the training yard and they have done for many years. As was mentioned earlier, there is a long tradition in many of the fire services of either being in Civil Defence or of having been in Civil Defence. I contend that the relationship between the fire service and Civil Defence has never been as good as it is at the moment. I hope that interaction continues as much as it can within the parameters particularly of health and safety.