Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on this motion today. First, I commend the work of the fire brigade service, many of whose members are in the Gallery, on providing a crucial service to the citizens of Dublin city and county. While I am from west Cork, most weeks I spend three days in Dublin and I may well need the fire brigade service at some stage. While tonight's issues are very much focused on the Dublin Fire Brigade service, the west Cork fire brigade service also has problems which need to be highlighted. I will only touch on that briefly today.

I disagree with the HSE's proposal to remove the delivery of Dublin's ambulance service from Dublin Fire Brigade and, instead to merge it with the National Ambulance Service. At present, Dublin Fire Brigade has 800 trained firefighter-paramedics to provide immediate medical assistance to members of the public in need of treatment on a 24-7 basis, 365 days a year. If the ambulance service in Dublin is removed from Dublin Fire Brigade it will impact negatively on the delivery of this vital service and have an adverse effect on safeguarding the community of Dublin. Instead, the Government should be looking at ways to maximise service delivery and to provide greater measures to protect the hard-working firemen who risk their lives every day in order to keep others safe.

In my area of west Cork, the firefighters do tremendous work also and should be recognised for that. It is a disgrace that Bantry and Bandon fire stations have water tankers that are broken. They must be replaced immediately. Bantry's water tanker was put off the road in February of this year and Bandon's water tanker has been off the road in recent years. A water tanker is a very important asset to a fire service fleet, as it can carry up to 2,000 gallons of water. In many cases when a fire brigade is called out to a fire there is no water fire hydrant and that is when a water tanker is vital. It is outrageous that west Cork currently does not have any water tankers and that the nearest ones are in Mallow and Middleton. In a recent fire at a farm in west Cork, five fire stations had to be called out because of the extent of the fire where there was no hydrant and extra water was needed. They had no water tanker and if they had, all these stations would not have been needed.

I will return to the issue at hand. I call on the Government to retain the delivery of Dublin's ambulance service through Dublin Fire Brigade and not to merge Dublin's ambulance service with the National Ambulance Service.

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