Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The final issue I wish to raise very quickly with Mr. Doyle relates to retained firefighters. I have been raising this with the Department. People are leaving the service and younger people are not coming into it. There is a real problem. It is one of the services provided by local authorities that people forget about. The public do not realise the number of services provided by local authorities. One of the essential services is the fire service. In general, local authorities do it very well. There is a real issue with retained firefighters. I cannot quote directly from the previous correspondence I received. From memory, however, I believe it stated that there is a review going on and that there will hopefully be a report by the end of the year. I got that letter three months ago. That is a slow pace. I cannot remember the name of it, but whatever body is charged with this is carrying out a survey. To be blunt, we could find out the views of people who have left the service and those who are still in it as to what the problems are and talk to the fire chiefs. It could be done in a month. We have to try to get things moving more quickly in this country. The review will be ready by the end of the year at the pace it is going, and that is only to find out what is wrong. Are we looking at another year or two years to change the situation, get agreement on it and to implement a new system? Where will the fire service be? This is important to local authority members and staff but even more important to the public in terms of saving lives and preventing damage to property. We do not have time. It is the fire service we are talking about here - an emergency service.

I am not knocking the people who wrote the letter. They are telling me factually what has happened, but I say to Mr. Doyle that as public servants we must move things on more quickly. This exercise should take a month. If this was anywhere else people would be asked to go out and get answers, for example, to 30 questions in the next month. They would be asked to make recommendations and get on with the process.