Published on Monday26thNovember2018

Minister with Responsibility for Defence, Paul Kehoe T.D., attends Awarding of Drone Licences to 43 Civil Defence Volunteers

20181124 Kehoe Drones

Defence Minister Paul Kehoe with David Buckley Principal Officer, Civil Defence Branch, Department of Defence and Civil Defence Volunteers who received awards today for successful completion of Drone pilot training

Minister with Responsibility for Defence, Paul Kehoe attended an awards ceremony for 43 Civil Defence volunteers who recently completed a Drone pilot training programme. Successful completion of this training means that Civil Defence now have 60 trained pilots in 20 operational units throughout the country.

At the ceremony in the Civil Defence Phoenix Training Centre in the Phoenix Park, the Minister stated:

Civil Defence has never been afraid to change and has continued to thrive with the major transformations that have taken place down through the years. That success is very much to the credit of everybody assembled here today and in particular to the volunteers who give of their time and expertise.


The 20 Civil Defence drones located throughout the country and in each Major Emergency Management (MEM) region will assist Civil Defence in fulfilling its role as set out in the 2015 Government White Paper on Defence; that is to support the Principal Response Agencies. In particular, drones have assisted Civil Defence volunteers when An Garda Siochána has requested support from Civil Defence especially in the case of a missing person.

The Minister concluded by congratulating the 43 volunteers on successfully completing the drone pilot training programme and thanked them personally and on behalf of the Government for their commitment and dedication in serving their communities.

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