Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)

I wish to share time with Deputies Brian O'Shea, Willie Penrose, Jack Wall, Kathleen Lynch and Joanna Tuffy, with the permission of the House.

I thank our party leader, Deputy Eamon Gilmore, and our spokesperson, Deputy Ciarán Lynch, for bringing this motion before the House. The way a motion such as this comes before the House in Private Members' time is that the party debates what the most important issue of the time is. We have such an opportunity about every three weeks. On this occasion, Deputy Liz McManus pressed on us the necessity and importance of having this matter debated in the House. I want to thank Deputy McManus for ensuring this issue received the priority it deserves, hence this debate tonight.

I welcome the colleagues and families of the fallen firemen. Along with others I want to express my sympathy to them on the tragedy that has occurred. Perhaps it might be some consolation for them that here in the national Parliament the tragedy is now being debated and the issues raised by the firemen repeatedly before their death, and by their colleagues since and before, are now being discussed by the Dáil. The tragedy therefore becomes a catalyst for good — and only good can come from our debating it here. It is a very heavy price to pay for the causation of a debate in the House. I repeatedly ask myself why we have to wait for a tragedy to move on what people directly involved, such as the firemen, constantly tell us is a requirement.

I want to pay tribute to the existing fire service. In my constituency it is entirely a retained or part-time service. There is a station in Newbridge, Naas, Athy, Maynooth, Monasterevin and Leixlip. We have 56 part-time firemen and four people, full-time, in charge. There were 1,774 calls last year. They cover a population of 186,000 60,000 homes, roughly. We have industrial complexes, a university, high rise buildings and the service is simply not capable of providing the coverage that is required on a part-time basis. There is an absolute necessity to ensure we have a full-time fire service, not just in Wicklow and neighbouring Kildare, but in the country generally. A consultants' report has been before Government for a considerable time advocating that.

What we are proposing in the Dáil this evening is straightforward. We are proposing that Dáil Members support the call by their colleagues for an independent investigation into the death of the firefighters. The motion regrets the failure of the Government to implement in full the recommendations of the Farrell Grant Sparks review of fire safety and fire services in Ireland submitted to the then Department of the Environment and Local Government in January 2002. It calls for the establishment of a national authority for fire and civil protection emergency services. That is one of the key recommendations of that review. It calls, as well, for the establishment of full-time fire services in areas of high population such as Bray.

The Government, comprising Fianna Fáil, the Green Party and the Progressive Democrats, is rejecting that call and proposing a meaningless collection of platitudes as an amendment. I should not expect one word of that amendment to be different if the Green Party was not in office. Deputy John Gormley, as the Green Party Minister responsible, might as well have been in Opposition for all the effect he had on what is before the House tonight. Let us examine what the amendment contains to remind the House what is being suggested. The Government's essential bottom line is that arrangements for the provision of fire services in all areas of the country are a matter for the relevant fire authorities, which expend an estimated €240 million per annum. It is saying, in effect, that local authorities must provide the fire service. This is not just a matter for local authorities, but a national issue that requires a decision at national level. There must be funding provision at national level for full-time fire services in the local authorities. Implementation at local level is a matter for local authorities but decisions and funding are required from Government at national level.

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