Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 187: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the measures which have been taken to identify the 42 people Ireland has committed to the EU's emergency response group through the Civil Protection Mechanism; if so, the number of the people identified who have taken part in EU funded training programmes or exercises now that restrictions on participation have been lifted; the capacity-building steps which have been taken to ensure that this commitment is being met through the provision of personnel and participation in training; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31320/06]

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 188: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government when Ireland signed up to the Civil Protection Mechanisms; and the discussions which were held with fire, ambulance and Civil Defence services around the country either prior to or after this occurred. [31321/06]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 187 and 188 together.

The EU Civil Protection Mechanism was established by Council Decision 2001/792/EC, which was adopted in October 2001 following negotiations between the Member States in which Ireland participated fully. There were no formal discussions at sub-national level in relation to these negotiations.

Eight Irish nominees have undertaken Civil Protection training courses to date. The courses in question are the Community Mechanism Induction Course, the Operational Management Course and the High Level Co-ordination Course. These training courses are essentially directed at team leaders and incident assessors. Participation in training courses is ongoing and my Department anticipates that at least one further nominee will participate in civil protection training before the end of the year.

While we indicated in 2003, following wide consultation, that up to 42 personnel comprising 15 experts and 6 intervention teams could potentially be made available within the framework of the Mechanism, it has become clear in the meantime that the most likely roles for Irish personnel are as team leaders or assessors; in practice, countries which regularly experience incidents such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, major forest fires and major floods tend to have significant contingency search and rescue capacity and are in a position to provide substantial resources to assist requesting countries at very short notice. Therefore, it is our intention to concentrate on identifying and training additional personnel as team leaders and assessors rather than pursuing the establishment of intervention teams.