Tánaiste Simon Harris officially opens Roscommon Civil Defence Headquarters
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From: Department of Defence
- Published on: 11 April 2025
- Last updated on: 12 April 2025
The Tánaiste and Minister for Defence, Simon Harris, today officially opened the new Headquarters for Roscommon’s Civil Defence Unit.
The new purpose-built facility was completed at a cost of €2.6 million and will ensure that Civil Defence volunteers can train and exercise safely in order to respond in a range of emergency and non-emergency scenarios.
The facility 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 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 continued:
“For my part, I can assure you that I will continue to push to ensure that Civil Defence gets the resources it needs in the years ahead. New equipment, new policies, new training programmes and new facilities, such as this one in Roscommon, mark a new era for the modern Civil Defence.”
In conclusion, the Tánaiste congratulated 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.
Notes
Today’s event is being hosted by Roscommon Civil Defence Unit, at its new headquarters in Ballyboughan, which was funded by Roscommon County Council.
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. The department will also provide fit-out-funding for this new headquarters. This investment is being replicated all over the State.
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.
The Civil Defence role is to support the Principal Response Agencies (An Garda Síochána, the HSE and the Local Authority/Fire Service), in a range of emergency and non-emergency scenarios, including medical response, missing person search, community support and adverse weather events.