Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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1717. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence if he will address concerns that members of the Civil Defence in County Tipperary are being barred from assisting at community or local authority events; if this is now a nationwide policy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1551/17]

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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Civil Defence is a statutory volunteer-based organisation which supports the frontline emergency services. It operates in partnership between the Department of Defence and local authorities throughout Ireland. The Department of Defence is charged with the strategic management and development of Civil Defence at national level.

At local level, Civil Defence is based in each local authority area under the operational control of the relevant local authority. On a day-to-day basis these Units operate under the control of a Civil Defence Officer (CDO). The CDO is a full-time employee of the local authority and is responsible for the day-to-day management of Civil Defence matters under the overall direction of the Chief Executive of the local authority.

The White Paper on Defence (2015) establishes the priority task for Civil Defence as emergency support to the Principal Response Agencies (An Garda Síochána, the Health Service Executive and local authorities). This embraces the large number of support roles under the Framework for Major Emergency Management which includes providing assisting in dealing with a wide range of emergencies at national and local level, including severe weather, flooding and searches for missing persons.

There is no prohibition on Civil Defence Units engaging in community support activities. The day-to-day operational management of local Civil Defence units is the responsibility of the relevant local authority in which the unit is based. In this context, it is a matter for each local authority to determine the type of community events that can be supported and the level of support that can be provided. In making this determination, the local authority will take a wide range of factors into consideration including the availability of volunteers, whether those volunteers are trained and equipped to safely undertake the task, competing demands for Civil Defence support, etc. As such, there are limits to the community support that can be provided.

Civil Defence Units throughout the country perform excellent work in supporting the Principal Response Agencies and their communities including during adverse circumstances such as the severe weather we have seen over recent years. I very much appreciate the efforts of all the volunteers and it is my intention that Civil Defence will continue to receive the necessary funding and supports to further develop its capacity to support the Principal Response Agencies, particularly in emergency situations.