asked the Minister for Defence if he will make a statement on the operations of the Civil Defence forces, indicating the numbers of members, the budget for each of the last three years for which figures are available; if he has plans to raise the public profile of the Civil Defence forces; and whether any further civil defence handbooks are in preparation.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Civil Defence.
5.
Operations involving Civil Defence personnel may be classified under two headings — accident or emergency call-outs and training exercises. Primary responsibility for call-outs rest with the Controller, that is the county or city manager, and exact figures in this category are not available. Obviously, the frequency of call-outs depends on several local factors and some areas would have substantially more call-outs than others. However, from inquiries made it would appear that in any given year about a third of all operations are calls-outs and two-thirds are training exercises.
As an aid to training and to maintain the interest of the Civil Defence volunteer personnel, competitions are held each year for the rescue, auxiliary fire service, casualty and welfare services at county, regional and national levels.
National exercises for the warden service, national fallout exercises, are likewise held each year. The object of these exercises is to test the main features of the system organised to handle a radioactive fallout situation. The exercises rehearse members of the Civil Defence Warden Service in their wartime duties. In addition to the Civil Defence volunteer elements, warden service, scientific intelligence officers and message centre staff, the Army Observer Corps, Garda Síochána, Radio Telefís Éireann, the Meterological Service and Irish Lights participate in the national fallout exercises. Local exercises are also held within counties and regions.
The Civil Defence rolls of local authorities show the total number of active members in the country in 1982, 1983 and 1984 as 19,844, 20,639 and 21,414, respectively.
The organisation is financed in the main by a specific provision under subhead G in the Defence Vote. The allocations were £1,365,000, £1,500,000 and £1,720,000 in 1983, 1984 and 1985, respectively. Contributions by the local authorities in each of those years ranged from about £300,000 to £400,000. On this basis, total spending on Civil Defence was in excess of £2 million in 1985.
With regard to raising the public profile of the Civil Defence organisation, I might refer to some of the various ways by which Civil Defence was promoted in 1985. The most noteworthy of these was the national fallout exercise "Network '85" in March during which I gave a televised address to the public. The Minister of State hosted and attended the national competition finals which received widespread media attention. Volunteers gave significant assistance with events such as the "Triathlon" in Sligo in June, the Scout Jamboree in Galway in August and the Nissan International Classic Cycle Race in September. The publicity attendant on these and similar events helped to promote the image of Civil Defence.
Other activities such as involvement in search and rescue operations, assistance at accidents and the holding of weekend training camps all helped to promote Civil Defence as an active and effective nationwide organisation. The Deputy will appreciate from what I have said that I see the promotion of Civil Defence as a significant element in almost all the activities of the organisation. I propose to continue to promote Civil Defence in all these ways.
I should also mention that early in 1985 a major issue of equipment for Civil Defence — comprising six ambulances, five landrovers, ten lighting and rescue sets and a fire appliance — was made to the local authorities. Additionally, a further four fire appliances and three personnel and equipment vehicles, together with a substantial stock of radiac dose rate meters, will be issued to local authorities in the near future. The Deputy may be aware that the issue of a new uniform for volunteers commenced in 1984 and is still continuing. This has contributed greatly to the morale and image of the volunteers.
An up-dated householders handbook to replace the publication known as Bás Beatha is at an advanced stage of preparation. The handbook will advise on the measures to be taken by householders for their protection against the effects of nuclear fallout. The target date for the completion of the handbook is September 1986.
A series of pamphlets aimed at school children aged 12 to 16 years for inclusion in schools civics programmes should be available for the next school year.
Will the Minister state what method will be used for distribution of the new handbook which comes out in September 1986? Is he satisfied that the moneys being provided for Civil Defence are adequate for the reasonable needs of the organisation? After making allowance for inflation, it appears that the money being spent on the Civil Defence organisation is probably decreasing in real terms.
I should imagine that the distribution of the handbook would be as was the case before, namely, to every household. I presume the same method will be followed on this occasion. The amount of money is adequate. Obviously I should like to be able to allocate more to Civil Defence but within the allocation I am satisfied that the service will be able to continue with their training operations and to do all the things we have come to depend on the organisation to do. There are many experienced people there and the need for large capital expenditure for training many new people does not arise. There is much routine on-going training. There is not a high turnover in the Civil Defence organisation which is a tribute to the dedication of the volunteers in it. I am satisfied that the money is reasonably adequate for the purposes required.
Will the Minister state who is responsible for training the people in the Civil Defence so far as nuclear fall out is concerned? Is that done through the Army? What is the brief of the Civil Defence and their inter-relationships with the Army and with the Garda Síochána in the event of nuclear fallout? Who carries the authority and what is the liaison between the various groupings?
At this stage the training is done by the Civil Defence themselves. Of course there is an Army input in the entire scheme via the observer corps. The Deputy may be aware that two years ago I directed the up-grading of the observer corps from the previous point where to all intents and purposes the corps was non-operational. It has been expanded significantly, involving FCA personnel throughout the country and in turn, they are in liaison with the Civil Defence authorities. There is a comprehensive scheme of liaison between the Civil Defence, the military authorities and the Garda Síochána.