Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)

It strikes me that vehicles are available at local level to many organisations, including the Civil Defence, the Irish Red Cross, the Order of Malta and the St. John Ambulance Brigade of Ireland. In light of the current Exchequer position, there is a major case for making every effort to co-ordinate the activities of the organisations I mentioned with those of the Reserve Defence Force, which we discussed earlier. If we are to encourage people to get involved in the Civil Defence, it must be made more attractive. It needs to get involved in other activities that are attractive to young people. We seem to be making contributions to statutory and voluntary bodies, such as the Civil Defence, that are doing the same work, such as providing assistance at local level during bad weather. If a programme of co-operation and co-ordination were established and maintained in an ongoing way, the whole operation would be more attractive for those involved and the public at large would get a much more streamlined and co-ordinated service in vital areas.

See this speech in context