Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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432. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence the annual funding allocated to the national Emergency co-ordination group in each of the years the 2010 to 2017, in tabular form; and the projected allocation for 2018. [44583/17]

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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The National Emergency Coordination Centre (NECC) is located in Agriculture House. Its primary purpose is to provide a dedicated multifunctional facility in which ministers and/or senior officials convene to co-ordinate the response in the event of a major emergency or incident requiring a national-level response.  The NECC is activated in support of all emergencies which require a national-level response. Staff from the Office of Emergency Planning (civil and military) in the Department of Defence manage the Centre on an ongoing basis during such emergencies providing support to the Lead and other Departments. The centre is available to all departments with an emergency planning/management role and is regularly used outside of emergencies for meetings of the Government Task Force on Emergency Planning and associated subgroups along with being used for training and exercises. The National Emergency Coordination Group (NECG) is a generic group representative of all Government Departments and Agencies providing support to the Lead Government Department chairing the NECG. The NECG is activated in response to an emergency and when activated is chaired by the Department with lead responsibility in respect of the particular emergency. The NECG meets in the NECC. While there is no specific annual funding allocated to the National Emergency Coordination Group there is an annual funding budget for the Office of Emergency Planning which maintains the NECC and that is set out in the following table. This funding covers the operational, maintenance and training costs associated with running the National Emergency Coordination Centre, the annual ‘Be Winter Ready’ campaign and any costs attributed to meetings of the National Emergency Coordination Group (NECG).