More than 100 volunteers from all over Wexford attended service awards at Wexford County Council’s annual Civil Defence Awards Presentation Ceremony. The function, in the Riverbank House Hotel, was attended by County Council Chairman Cllr Tony Dempsey, Council Chief Executive Tom Enright, Director of Services John Carley, Chief Fire Officer John Maher,Chief Superintendant John Roche and Stephen Hall, Principal Officer National Civil Defence College.

The awards were presented following months of rigorous training by the 110 male and female volunteers of Wexford Civil Defence.

Civil Defence Officer Gabrielle Willis outlined the work that was carried out during the year: 63 Local courses in various disciplines were run and certificates were give out for Rope Rescue Instructors, two qualified, Rope Rescue Level One Operator, seven qualified, Field Skills course, eight qualified, Swiftwater and Flood Responder Instructor, one qualified, Swiftwater & flood responders, four qualified, Water and Flood Awareness, 47 qualified, Cardiac First Responder, 22 qualified, Cardiac First Responder Instructors, 3 qualified, Occupational First Aid, 24 qualified, OFA QQI, 16 qualified, Emergency First Responders, 17 qualified, Manual Handling People Moving Instructors, three qualified, Manual Handling, 20 qualified and Manual Handling People Moving, 18 qualified.

The courses are specifically designed to equip the volunteers with essential health and safety and rescue skills to enable them to carry out their volunteer services and respond to the many emergency callouts they receive throughout the year.

Gabrielle said 15 OFA courses were run for the county councl with around 120 people qualifying and 77 Civic/Community events were provided with Ambulance and First Aid cover and Boat Safety Cover.

During the award function, long service awards were presented to Liam Healy, 30 years, Tony Forte, Jonathan McDonald, Jan Crosbie and Conor Jordan, 20 years and Danny Meaney and Denis Sheridan, 10 years.

Wexford Civil Defence is a service of Wexford County Council. It is headed up by the Civil Defence Officer who is a full time employee of Wexford County Council. As a national statutory volunteer organisation it’s function is to provide a second line response to the Primary Response Agencies ie. An Garda Siochana, Health Service Executive and Local Authority.

Wexford Civil Defence has 110 active volunteers spread throughout the County. They are all Garda vetted, and they are trained in skills such as Casualty/first aid, Rescue, Search & recovery, Welfare, Communications, Radiation Monitoring and fire fighting skills. Night training classes for the volunteers are run each by highly trained Instructors in the different disciplines.

If you are interested in volunteering to be part Wexford Civil Defence, in being highly trained in responding to emergencies or providing assistance to community events, and learning exciting and interesting skills, then please contact Wexford Civil Defence Office for further information. (053 9196265)