Mr. Kieran Kehoe:

Galway County Council was hit particularly badly by Storm Éowyn. Through my direct contacts, as Mr. O'Reilly was doing on the humanitarian side, I was communicating with all the counterparts continually, that is, all the chiefs and the staff on the emergency response side. The response by Galway County Council was phenomenal in relation to the impacts of the storm. As regards standardisation, it is a decision locally. The bulk of local authorities do have chainsaw crews in their fire services. Some do not, but they would generally have them through their operational crews. What we did do through Storm Éowyn - because, as I said everything on one side of that line from Louth to Clare was under pressure - was redeploy chainsaw crews from across the country to where they were requested and needed. On the Senator's issue about operations on borders, etc, every single part of this country is covered in relation to a fire service response. It may be provided by an adjacent town or village or wherever, based on where the most local fire station is to it, but every single place is covered. I have to be very supportive of the fire services in this country and what they do on a daily basis-----