Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Welcome the students from St. Pius X Boys’ National School as well. I share what Senator O'Reilly said about the great work done by the Civil Defence. I also share his sense of pride in the record of the Civil Defence over the years as a vital part of our social fabric, but I am alarmed by one thing. In 2015, the Department of Defence published a White Paper on Defence, which stated "The life-blood of Civil Defence is provided by some 4,000 volunteers". That was in 2015. The next thing that happened was that a plan was prepared either two or three years ago called Civil Defence - Towards 2030, which stated 3,500. Today, the Minister of State has come to the House and said "almost 2,500". Let us be honest. If those figures are correct, there has been a sharp decline in volunteering for the Civil Defence, and that is an awful pity. There is a strategy called Civil Defence - Towards 2030, but if the number of volunteers has gone down from 4,000 in 2015 to 3,500 as per the website and to almost 2,500 volunteers now, there is a problem. By the way, it is not just a problem with Civil Defence; it is a problem right across the board in this country. The Garda Reserve was established with some difficulty and political difficulty. It aimed to have 1,200 members and it had that many or thereabouts. However, it has been allowed to almost completely collapse. The 1,200 members are now down around 300-odd members now. There has been absolutely no significant recruitment over the years. The members in the Garda Reserve are getting older. They are coming towards the age limit and leaving with - I am sorry to say this – a sense of sadness and futility that they volunteered to become part of what was to be a valuable part of the policing service on a voluntary basis and, unfortunately, the whole system was allowed to atrophy for a number of reasons that I have spoken about in this House previously. There is a strategy document for the Garda Reserve. There can be strategy documents and White Papers, but the point is whether the recruitment is being done. Senator Chambers and I, at different times, served in the An Fórsa Cosanta Áitiúil, FCA, and the Reserve Defence Force. It is dwindling all the time. It is atrophying. Volunteerism in three branches of our national services is in serious decline. I do not know why that is the case. Perhaps it is different social attitudes but I also think it is different departmental attitudes.

I looked at the document entitled Civil Defence – Towards 2030, which is the current strategy for Civil Defence. I do not see anything in it about numbers. If Civil Defence is distributed across 35 local authority nodes and it has 2,500 or 3,500 members or whatever it may be, it means that in most local authority areas, there is an average of 100 members. That is a low figure. It is a threshold such that if we fall below it, it will become increasingly difficult to keep up morale and do all the things Senator Joe O’Reilly mentioned, from Fleadh Cheoils to rescue to pandemic duties to assistance in mass vaccination programmes, not to mention other emergency services supplied by the Civil Defence.

I do not want to rain on anybody’s parade. This Bill is necessary. There is nothing wrong with updating the legislation. However, let us call a spade a spade. We are talking about a situation in which the Civil Defence is, on the face of documents published by the Department, in decline, and that should not be.

The Department of Defence should recognise that even the Permanent Defence Forces are in a state of decline. Numbers are falling and recruitment is difficult. I read in the papers the other day that what used to be called married quarters in barracks are mainly not used anymore because they have been phased out as a policy matter. Many of them are unusable for lack of maintenance. If being a soldier in our Army or a sailor in our Naval Service is a career, it has to be paid well.

We cannot go on as we are, allowing our defence budget to be as small as it is. We need, unfortunately, to invest far more. We need to buy those two transport aircraft Deputy Cathal Berry has been speaking about. We are not in a position to evacuate people or logistically move any significant amount of material from anywhere in the world without the assistance of others. We need a Defence Force that is capable of dealing with security situations that could yet still re-emerge in Ireland or that could come from outside Ireland, of which we do not even spend much time worrying about.

I am making the point that if volunteerism is important, let us do something about it. I brought the Irish media over to Chester in England to see how the special constables, their version of the Garda Reserve, operate. They were a bit surprised when they asked a woman why she was a special constable and she replied that she likes to give something back to her community. They asked her what she does normally and she said she is an intensive care nurse. The journalists’ jaws dropped. There are people who want to give and our State is not allowing them to do so adequately.

I welcome the Minister of State and this legislation. However, get on with the job and make sure the numbers volunteering across Ireland are on the way up and not the way down.