Michael McNamara (Clare, Labour)

I welcome the announcement that the position of retained firefighters on jobseeker's allowance is being considered. If declining employment that is beyond a certain distance of a fire station is considered unreasonable, the whole rural fire service becomes untenable. It relies on men and women being available within 2 km of their fire station when on call. We have a choice of leaving the social welfare code as it is and abandoning essential rural fire services. To professionalise all rural services would be an expensive step for the State given the paucity of call-outs, however. Having a full-time fire service in every small town would be prohibitively expensive. Accordingly, the alternative would be a change to the social welfare code which is necessary in these circumstances.

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