Michael Kitt (Fianna Fail)

I thank the Minister of State for coming before the House to deal, in such an efficient manner, with the Bill. I am glad he has responded to the issues of fatalities from fires and the level of investment in fire services, which I raised earlier. He has outlined the amount of money which has been provided for fire services. The county managers and chief fire officers in every county will rightly seek more money and we will all support them.

The Minister of State referred also to the great work of the fire authorities and the fire services over Easter in fighting the many gorse and furze fires in Galway and other western counties. The fire brigades had to be called out quickly right through the Easter period to deal with those fires. There was much damage done to the environment though there were, thankfully, no injuries in County Galway. We must emphasise the need to prevent fires of this type.

While the debate dealt with the licensing of indoor events, I hope we can return to a discussion of issues relating to the fire service. Senator Bannon's amendments suggest that we will examine the questions of fines and indexation when another Minister attends the House. We have had a fine debate on many issues surrounding the fire service, particularly as they relate to the licensing of indoor events.