Galway Civil Defence will be adding to their capacity to respond to national emergencies and extreme weather events with a new emergency vehicle.
Sixteen Ford Ranger Crewcab Pickup Vehicles will be joining the Civil Defence fleet in the coming weeks, and one of the four wheel drives has been allocated to Galway.
Galway West TD Hildegarde Naughton said that the volunteers do “enormous work, often in perilous conditions, and need and deserve appropriate equipment”.
“The vehicles will improve the four-wheel capability of the Civil Defence fleet and further improve its ability to support the Principal Response Agencies.
“During serious weather events, such as Storm Ophelia in October 2017 and Storm Emma in March 2018, the Civil Defence fleet of four-wheel drive vehicles were fully deployed.”
She added that the new vehicles would assist volunteers in many tasks such as assisting local authorities, the HSE, the National Ambulance Service and An Garda Síochána.
During Storm Emma, Hildegarde Naughton said, many volunteers were involved in assisting vulnerable people including elderly who found themselves snowed in.
The purchase of vehicles was approved by Minister Kehoe this week, as part of a €500,000 allocation from the Dormant Accounts fund of the Department of Community and Rural Development.
