Denis Landy (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Section 13 deals with the annual reports produced by the local authorities under the local government legislation of 2001. They must refer to the performance of Civil Defence. However, the position is not very clear. To whom will one report under the new arrangement? There was a relationship between the local authority and the board of Civil Defence. The former collated the information on Civil Defence and was the reporting body. Now that the local authorities are to be taken out of the picture, what will be the chain of command?

With regard to expenditure incurred by local authorities, will the Minister of State clarify whether funds will come directly from the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government or the Department of Defence?

The Minister of State who is very familiar with activity on the ground in his constituency will know that many local authority staff are also members of Civil Defence. In many cases, they work voluntarily. If they adopted a different approach to life, they could expect to be paid for their work. We should acknowledge their voluntary work and sense of civic duty. On many occasions, they put on their Civil Defence uniforms and work in the manner outlined by Senator Michael Mullins.

The Minister of State might respond to my two questions.