Earlier, in one of her soliloquies that passes for a reply, the Tánaiste raised the emergency services, in particular the Dublin Fire Brigade.

She praised its wonderful record and said she trusts what the fire officers say, and so say all of us for all of our emergency services. A number of years ago we tabled a Bill on the protection of emergency workers, which would have applied to An Garda Síochána and all other emergency workers. I raise the issue in light of the increased number of attacks on members of the Garda in recent weeks and months. The Bill was voted down by the Government pending legislation to be introduced by it. That was in 2012 and it is now 2015. Does the Government have any plans to introduce legislation to penalise people specifically for attacking or endangering the lives of anybody in the emergency services?

Any direct attack on anybody who is part of the emergency services, of the kind described by Deputy Calleary, would be considered a criminal attack and would be a matter for the Garda to prosecute in the normal course of events.

It would be an extra offence.

I will ask for a report and send it to the Deputy. Speaking for my Department, when I became Minister for Social Protection there were a number of urgent issues relating to the social welfare status of retained firefighters around the country. As Minister, I gave priority to addressing the issue. We addressed it as a government as speedily as we could. It had been an outstanding issue for a very long period. Once again, I express my thanks to all the people who work in the fire services around the country. I agree with Deputy Calleary. We have worked as a government, and I have worked as Minister for Social Protection, to ensure in particular that members of the retained services in areas outside of the big cities, whose issues were outstanding for a long time, were addressed by me.