Roscommon Civil Defence headquarters officially opened

The Tánaiste and Minister for Defence, Simon Harris, officially opened the new headquarters for Roscommon's Civil Defence Unit on Friday.

The purpose-built facility at Ballyboughan was completed, at a cost of €2.6m, with funding from Roscommon County Council.

It is designed to ensure that Civil Defence volunteers "can train and exercise safely in order to respond in a range of emergency and non-emergency scenarios."

The headquarters will also allow for the safe and secure storage of the unit’s modern fleet of vehicles and equipment.

Speaking at the official opening, the Tánaiste and Fine Gael leader expressed his appreciation to the Civil Defence volunteers from Roscommon and across the country.

The Tánaiste highlighted the recent work of the Civil Defence in response to Storm Éowyn.

"Our Civil Defence volunteers worked tirelessly in the aftermath of Storm Éowyn, delivering food, generators and other supplies to so many households and businesses who were badly affected.

"What we saw was the incredible dedication of volunteers the length and breadth of the country, providing a vital service to their communities.

"Their response really did show us all the depth of the service provided by our Civil Defence and the fact they can always be relied on when people need their help and support."

The Tánaiste concluded by congratulating Roscommon County Council on their commitment to the funding and delivery of this modern facility, which will pay back its investment in the years ahead.

In addition to the Council funding of this new building, the Roscommon unit has also received close to €600,000 of funding from the Department of Defence over the past 5 years, to improve and enhance fleet and equipment and to upgrade their capabilities.

There are 28 Civil Defence units across the State, organised and managed at local authority level, with policy/training support and partial funding from the Department of Defence.