Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his reply. I acknowledge that there was a significant decline in participation in the RDF, particularly during the middle part of the previous decade. One is obliged to wonder why that decline occurred. I also wish to acknowledge the substantial contribution made to the State and local communities by the RDF in its many previous manifestations - the LSF, the LDF and the FCA - and over many years.

I accept that the Minister has been faced not only with a difficulty in respect of funding - the level of which being made available to the RDF has been dramatically reduced - but also with one which relates to numbers. The problem is that he is now perceived as being extremely effective when it comes to wielding the scalpel. People within the RDF look at him as the person who reduced the number of brigades from three to two. They are also aware of what he, as Minister for Justice and Equality, has done to the Garda station network throughout the country. Does the Minister accept that there are very real and grave concerns to the effect that he has embarked upon a course that will eventually lead to the evisceration of the RDF as we have known it?

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