Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, to the House. I thank him for his presentation and I appreciate the enthusiasm with which he goes about all these things.

I acknowledge the work done by members of the Civil Defence during the Covid pandemic. They did extraordinary effective work on a number of fronts. They had to deal with older people, people living in more isolated conditions, etc. Across the board the Civil Defence members did huge work and that merits acknowledgement. Sadly, it is a reasonable proposition that we may not have had our last pandemic and, for that reason, it is important we have a strong and active Civil Defence that would be in a position to deal as effectively with future pandemics as we did with the last one. That makes the legislation and any dealings with the Civil Defence of crucial importance.

I am particularly proud of the Civil Defence organisation in County Cavan. We have a very big commitment to Civil Defence there in terms of numbers and activity, including constant activity around football matches and so forth. We had Fleadh Cheoil three years in a row and at any events the Civil Defence is there but it was particularly there during Covid. Some years back the foot and mouth disease presented huge difficulties in the Border area. All of that brings into focus the importance of the Civil Defence and any supporting organisations.

The Minister of State made the point that a lot of this Bill is regulatory and is modernising legislation, and as such we welcome it. The Minister remains responsible for overall policies and operational matters, which is a continuation of the de facto situation, and that is restated in the modern legislation. Regarding county councils, the Bill states that the role of the Civil Defence is to manage the operation at local authority level, including the registration, training and management of Civil Defence volunteers. This is important at local authority level. It is important we devolve to local authorities functions they are capable of implementing, and certainly this is one where there is a good tradition of implementing successfully. There is a local tie-up. I notice a good few of the Civil Defence volunteers are staff of the local authority, which is a good thing and there is quite a range of other people who are volunteers.

Regarding the process by which people become Civil Defence volunteers, there is a proud tradition of the quality of volunteers and there must be a process. The register of serving volunteers is to be maintained in electronic form, and the Minister of State went to a lot of trouble to point out that is in keeping with data protection legislation, and that is how it should be. There should not be access to those records by any marketing companies or groups of people who have no right to be involved with that information. The register should not be accessed by anyone other than the relevant officers and the people themselves. The legislation provides for an individual to seek an update or amendment of the register in terms of his or her own position. It is important it is in keeping with data protection legislation, and a volunteer can at any time inspect the register and what is there, and rightly so.

Section 8 updates existing provisions concerning the preparation by local authorities of Civil Defence plans, which will then be approved by the Minister and published. It is important there would be a Civil Defence plan to deal with all potential emergencies, whether they are crowd issues at various cultural or social events or pandemics for which they are on stand-by, and that there would a plan for growth, recruitment, training and maintaining morale and motivation. It is important there would a plan, that it would be acted on and that it would be reviewed fairly regularly.

Section 10 provides for the Minister to make regulations for a code of practice for Civil Defence volunteers. From my anecdotal knowledge, and the Minister of State might confirm this in his concluding remarks, our Civil Defence volunteers have an exemplary record. They are one of the groupings who, thank God, have been immune from a lot of the dreadful information the Acting Chairperson and others were discussing in the House about other organisations. My understanding is the Civil Defence has an unblemished record and the Minister of State might confirm that in his concluding remarks. That is my anecdotal information. I did not ask a question on the matter but I gather that is the case. Certainly in all of the areas I know well personally, Civil Defence volunteers are exemplary people who do great job.

The Air-Raid Precautions Acts 1939 and 1946, and the Civil Defence Act 2012 are maintained and updated, where appropriate. Section 14 deals with transitional arrangements.

In essence, this Bill is modernising and good legislation. It is welcome and I understand it has the unanimous support of the House. Second Stage is an opportunity to pay tribute to our wonderful Civil Defence people. The Minister of State expressed pride in the Civil Defence organisation in his own county of Westmeath. I am very proud of Cavan Civil Defence and the wonderful job it does. Civil Defence is very visible in a good way and does a great job. I am pleased that everything will be done to protect Civil Defence volunteers in terms of data protection and the use of the register and that there will be upgrading and training. If we want the Minister of State to assure us of anything at the end, it would be that there will be good, continuous funding, training, modernisation and a review of plans, that it would be an ongoing organic process and that we would not sit on our laurels.