Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Headline figures from the Labour Court recommendation suggest an increase of between 24% and 32% in the annual €8,000 retained firefighters payment. It is a long way off a fixed or fair wage. I understand there are also ten recommendations to be examined by SIPTU and the Local Government Management Agency, LGMA. I had several phone calls this morning to my office about this. Retained firefighters need significant improvements in working arrangements to address what they call a recruitment and retention crisis. I know the announcement was only made yesterday and it is early days but I ask that something urgently be done about this.

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