For decades, cohorts of committed volunteers serving in Westmeath Civil Defence have been providing valuable back-up services to the main emergency services in the county and are highly thought of. But Topic has learned this week that things are at present in a critical state for the local organisation.
Members confirmed that they cannot recruit any new members for the 2019/2020 training season, or even hold proper weekly training sessions for their existing members, because they have nowhere to bring them at present. And they’ve endured a “frustrating situation for three years.
“Effectively, we are homeless, with nowhere to accommodate or train new members and we’re restricted even for existing members, and yet, the All Ireland Fleadh is coming up in ten months’ time – a major challenge for us, with huge preparations needed,” several longtime Civil Defence members told us this week. “How are we supposed to do it?” they asked, greatly frustrated by their ongoing situation.
Their problem is a fundamental one. They don’t have adequate accommodation, fit for purpose, even though a new building was bought late last year as a Civil Defence Headquarters in Mullingar. The building is sound, but not at all suitable for Civil Defence operational needs.
Their Facebook page states: “A new building was purchased as a Civil Defence Headquarters eleven months ago, and it has not yet been modified to facilitate the training and operational requirements of the organisation.”
When it was publicly announced that the new building had been purchased by the County Council in Mullingar, it seemed to be a breakthrough – but what Civil Defence personnel found was that the new building, while potentially excellent, needs considerable modification and work, and substantial money spent, and is little more than a shell at present.
“A proper plan is needed, and sufficient money to make it fit for purpose,” Topic was told. “We don’t know what is happening, at a time when it is essential to know it, if we’re to make any headway.” ‘We’ve been three years like this, without a headquarters fit for purpose. We were temporarily housed, until some months ago, in the Governor’s house at the County Buildings, Mullingar, where we still have access to some rooms, for limited training for existing members, but this is unsustainable.”
The new building is located at Lough Sheever Corporate Park, Mullingar, and is half of a new block, but presently is unworkable to train members, through lack of essential facilities, i.e. heating and training rooms.
“We can’t ask people to sit around in their overcoats at weekly meetings,” one Civil Defence volunteer explained. “We are being factual in all this, and we are in difficulty. How can we work there this winter with members, without facilities?” Topic was asked.
ON SITE MEETING
Last February, when they last met the relevant Council official on site, they were disappointed to hear that the Council did not have much money to spend on the building.
“Why was a building bought that was not fit for purpose. “We don’t know where we are at present, as we were told some work was going to commence but to date, nothing has happened,” Topic was told. “We’ve tried to work with the Council all along, but we can’t operate without basic facilities for members. The new building has to be made fit for purpose before we can use it.”
“This needs the necessary funding before it can happen,” Topic was told.
Since February, they have not met anyone from the Council at the new building.
“We’ve been forced at this stage to make our difficult situation publicly known, because new members want to join, but we just can’t take them on,” they said. “That is why we had to notify people via Facebook that we can’t recruit any new members, and must restrict training for existing volunteers. Four training rooms are needed, minimum, but we haven’t got them.”
DISHEARTENED
The longtime Civil Defence volunteers to whom we spoke this week were very disheartened, realising that until they are certain what is happening, even trying to hold on to their existing members is challenging, because they must comply with standards from external certifying bodies for training their members.
“Our 60 or more existing Civil Defence members need essential ongoing training and need facilities that we don’t have at present. We have to comply with what is essential and we’ll lose those members we have unless we can accommodate them. We should be a month into winter training by now.”
“How can we have weekly meetings for members without accommodation, or any heating?” Topic was asked.
Topic promised to make enquiries from Westmeath County Council about the situation regarding the new Civil Defence building. When we got in touch with the Council on Tuesday morning of this week, we were informed that only two people could give us any information, but up to time of writing, we had not received a reply from the person we succeeded in contacting.
