Eamon Scanlon (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I commend my colleagues, Deputies John Lahart, Seán Haughey and Darragh O'Brien, who have raised this important issue. We know about the services that are out there but it is only when we need a service that we really appreciate the work that is done by many people, including people in my own area. I come from County Sligo, which is in the north west. We have a fire service in Ballymote. I can verify that when one rings the emergency number and then hears the sound of the fire engine coming, it is some relief to know it is on its way.

We should commend those who work in the fire and ambulance services. They are taken for granted a bit. It is only when one needs the service that one fully appreciates the work they do.

I come from Ballymote, County Sligo. We have a good fire service there. As my colleague, Deputy MacSharry mentioned, we have a fire station in Ballyshannon that is to be recommended for closure, which is quite wrong. As was said earlier, funding was committed for two fire stations, one in Bundoran and one in Ballyshannon. These are rural towns in which the population can increase tenfold in the summer time and in the tourist season. I cannot understand why any of those services would be shut down. It is a retrograde step and I ask the Minister of State to have a talk with the officials in his Department to try to get it resolved. The people of the north west deserve better than what is being proposed.

The retained fire service people work extremely hard. They attend fires and road traffic accidents. It is fine for us who are in our beds at night when these people get a call. They have to go out and God only knows what they face. That is on a regular basis. I do not think their work is fully appreciated by the Government. In my home town, the people who supply that service must live within a mile and a half of the station and to be there within five minutes of the alarm going off. Ballymote, County Sligo has one of the best rural fire stations in the country time-wise and response-wise. That is on the record. These people cannot get ordinary work like anybody else. One constituent of mine works one day a week and cannot move more than five minutes away from the fire station because he is contracted 24-7 and has no choice but to be in that locality. He has been refused jobseeker's allowance. That is very wrong. He is paid about €70 for the day. When he was getting jobseeker's payments, he was paid about €140. He had a net gain of about €10 a day but the man wanted to work. Now he is told that because he works that one day, he must give up the fire brigade and not work to qualify for a jobseeker's payment. There is something badly wrong if the likes of this can go on. It is unfair for people who are putting their lives at risk day in, day out. They work for us by doing a very dangerous job and they deserve better. Another Minister has informed me that because it is one day and the same day every week, that man's jobseeker's payment should not be stopped. I ask the Minister of State to check that out for me.

The retirement age for retained firemen at present is 55, with an extra three years when people are medically fit to do it That age limit should be raised to 63. We are expecting people not to be able to get their pension until they are 68 now. Provided they are medically fit to carry on, that age limit should be raised in order that they can carry on into the future. They are experienced people.

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