Vol. 538 No. 3
263 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government if he will consider arranging a subvention towards the cost of the emergency medical technician course provided by the Dublin Fire Brigade training centre; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17857/01]
Dublin Fire Brigade provide the major part of the emergency ambulance service in the Dublin area. In order to ensure appropriate training for their personnel I understand they entered into an agreement with the North-Eastern University, Boston USA, to provide emergency medical technician training, EMT. Six weeks of EMT training is provided as part of the Dublin Fire Brigade recruit induction training. This course is funded by the corporation and there is no cost to the participants. I have no proposal to provide funding for this.
The Deputy may be referring to an open EMT course which the North-Eastern University provides as part of its activity on the Dublin Fire Brigade training campus. This six week course costs £1,500. The course is apparently mostly taken up by persons outside the fire service as career enhancing training. While the course is provided on the Dublin Fire Brigade campus as part of a contract arrangement, and sometimes uses Dublin Fire Brigade personnel who are qualified EMT instructors, it is not provided by Dublin Fire Brigade. I have no resources available to me to fund such a course.
