asked the Minister for Defence if he will consider issuing emergency medals to persons who joined one of the emergency services and, through the circumstances of their employment, had to resign from such service before they had served the period necessary to qualify for medals.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Issue of Emergency Medals.
The emergency service medals scheme, as recently amended by the Government, provides that a person who resigned from any of the emergency services in the public interest at the request of a Minister of State, or an authority acting on behalf of a Minister of State, without completing the requisite qualifying service can be awarded the emergency service medal. I do not propose to recommend to the Government that persons without the requisite service who resigned from any of the emergency services in any other circumstances should be awarded the medal.