Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)

I do not have the information on age limits off the top of my head, and I shall have to come back to the Deputy on that. In some areas there is considerable interaction with schools. While travelling around the country I have asked civil defence officers and others I have met about something which was very common in my youth, namely, the provision of first aid classes to a very high standard in relatively small rural communities. That had an enormous level of availability in my area, mainly through civil defence, while in other areas it was provided by the Red Cross and others. It seems to me to be an enormous advantage to civil society to have that type of skill available.

A number of things have happened. Standards have risen, of course, and regulation as regards the provision of training is at a very high level. The cost of the provision of some of these courses is very high, perhaps prohibitive in some instances, but it is something that could be usefully looked at, nonetheless.

That is not quite the point Deputy Stanton is referring to in terms of direct interaction with schools, I appreciate, which is very positive in some areas. The argument has been made to me that organisations such as civil defence and a number of others could be proactively involved in providing, for example, first aid courses in schools in transition year or whatever. This is something that has not really been scoped, and in an ideal world it should be available universally. That seems to me to be a considerable challenge, although at a considerable cost.

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