Pat Casey (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Acting Leader. I wish to raise the issue of today is in relation to Circular 15/02, which was issued by the Department of Finance. Basically, this provides for civil servants to be granted leave to attend training and emergency search and rescue operations. Every one of us in this House eventually finds a community organisation that touches them. In my case, one of those organisations is Community First Responders. I have been involved with this organisation for some time. I attended the initial meeting in Bray in 2004, at which the concept of community first responders was introduced. I was involved in the establishment of the first recognised community responder group in my community of Laragh, Roundwood and Moneystown. These groups provide an incredible service across the whole country now. I had the privilege of providing my premises as a training facility for a number of years up to the establishment of the national organisation. Indeed, Sonia, my wife, hosted a coffee morning in recent weeks to raise funds because, as we recognise, the various items of equipment that responders use have end-of-life dates and will all have to be replaced at some point.

We had the Community First Responders in here a couple of years ago. The chairman, Mr. John Fitzgerald, was in here when we were discussing the Life Saving Equipment Bill 2017, which our colleague Senator Keith Swanick introduced in 2017. It is disappointing that this Bill has been help up by bureaucracy. Its simple purpose is to place a value on lifesaving equipment. We should go back to it at some stage.

As stated, I am rasing the issue of a particular circular. The circular in question clearly allows civil servants in search and rescue, Mountain Rescue Ireland and Irish Water Safety to attend training courses and to be present at search and rescue operations without having to take time off. All I am asking is that the Department and the Minister recognise Community First Responders and introduce another circular to include the organisation on the list. In fairness, Circular 15/02 was introduced when Community First Responders had not even been established.

I ask the Acting Leader to assist me in raising this as an issue to see if we can get it resolved in order that Community First Responders will be included in the same way as search and rescue, Irish Water Safety and Mountain Rescue Ireland teams. This would ensure that civil servants involved with the organisation could equally be allowed to go out on calls.