Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I believe that whoever owns those buildings should have a legal responsibility because firefighters are going out and putting their lives at risk. We have seen it in Cork multiple times. It is good to hear that the problem has reduced in Dublin but I imagine it is still a danger or a risk.

There is another issue I wanted to raise. The witnesses are probably aware of it. I am talking about the closure of the Ballincollig fire station in Cork and the whole issue of retained firefighting staff. Is that feasible now in an urban setting? The witnesses might enlighten me. There might be a place for retained fire staff but Ballincollig is now part of Cork city. Cork City Council has been trying to recruit there for almost two years but it cannot get people to apply to be a retained firefighter. Ballincollig is different from a rural area. People in the town might be working in the city, in Little Island, Ringaskiddy or anywhere. According to the regulations, if you want to apply for a retained firefighter position, you have to be on call and you have to be local. As a result, the fire brigade station in Ballincollig has closed and the existing fire stations in Cork city are having to deal with that. Cork doubled in size when the boundary extension happened a few years ago.

Related to that, what is the target of pumpsper capita?How many people would there be for one pump? How many would be in Dublin?