Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)

I, too, sympathise with the Murray and O'Shaughnessy families. It is very important that immediate action by the Government be the outcome of this debate. The action should be as outlined in the Labour Party motion and include the implementation of the recommendations of the Farrell Grant Sparks review. A national fire authority and full-time fire services should be established and there should be an independent investigation of the Bray fire tragedy. As Deputy Jack Wall stated, it is very important that the existing momentum lead to change, beginning from now.

The Farrell Grant Sparks review indicates that very impressive steps were taken by the consultants to ensure a broad and inclusive consultation process in the lead-up to its publication. There were written submissions and e-mail feedback and 40 stakeholders were contacted. Some 200 representative groups were invited to meetings of seven regional fora, and there were in excess of 160 meetings and consultations. The model of consultation was very good and must have led to great expectations among those involved. However, it must be very disillusioning for them to realise the recommendations of the report have not been implemented five years after its publication.

The most important point of the report was the call for a national fire authority. Let me address points Deputies made in this regard and the reference to a quango. I was involved in local government and very protective of its powers. The national fire authority would centralise functions that are currently dispersed, including those of the local fire safety authorities and the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. It would very much retain the national and local government functions. The idea behind the national fire authority is to inform local authorities about their functions. Local authorities do not have the national standards required to ensure they carry out their role properly.

The key recommendation of the report was that the authority be set up. Page 93 recommends that the authority be announced and brought into being immediately, given the acceptance of the recommendations by the Minister. I urge the immediate implementation of the recommendations, including the establishment of the national fire authority.

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