Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am taking this question on behalf of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. I thank the Deputies for raising this important issue. I would like to clarify that the provision of a fire service in its functional area, including the establishment and maintenance of a fire brigade, the assessment of fire cover needs and the provision of fire station premises, is a statutory function of individual fire authorities under the Fire Services Acts 1981 and 2003. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage supports fire authorities by establishing policy, setting national standards for fire safety and fire service provision, providing essential training programmes, issuing guidance on operational and other related matters and providing capital funding for priority infrastructural projects.

Dublin City Council provides fire prevention and fire and rescue services for the four Dublin local authorities. It also provides an emergency ambulance service by arrangement with the National Ambulance Service of the HSE. Local authority fire services in Ireland are provided by 3,200 professional, competent and highly committed personnel at all levels in 217 full-time and retained fire stations. It is important to note that the number of fire service front-line staff has been maintained at a constant high level throughout the economic challenges of recent years, even when staffing numbers, by necessity, were reduced in other areas of the local authority sector.

Under the Local Government Act 2001, arrangements on staffing in each local authority are the responsibility of the chief executive. With regard to staffing in Dublin Fire Brigade, I understand that Dublin City Council, as the employer, has engaged in an extended process with firefighter representative bodies Fórsa and SIPTU at the Workplace Relations Commission. Unfortunately, the parties were not able to reach agreement on all the proposals, some of which are intended to alleviate pressures caused by current staffing arrangements. I encourage the parties to continue to use the State's established statutory industrial relations machinery to resolve the issues concerned.

Also in respect of staffing in Dublin Fire Brigade, I am aware that the most recent firefighter recruitment campaign began in September 2019. All recent fire brigade recruit training has taken place in the shadow of the pandemic, which has placed considerable additional challenges on the process. The first class of recruits from that campaign began training in April 2020 and have taken up positions across the brigade. A second recruit class began training in June 2021 and will finish this December to take up positions across the brigade in January 2022. A third recruit class will begin training early in February 2022, with a start date for a fourth and final class of the remaining panelled recruits currently under review.

The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage funds new fire appliances and specialist equipment under national procurement programmes. Dublin City Council was allocated four new class-B fire appliances in the latest appliance procurement programme, at an approximate cost of €1.9 million. Dublin City Council was also grant-aided to procure three class-B fire appliances in both the 2015 and 2017 programmes. Continued investment in the fire appliance fleet is one of the key national priorities for the fire services capital programme.

Dublin City Council received approval in 2018 to purchase six four-wheel drive vehicles for €170,000. In July 2019, the council received approval to purchase a new turntable ladder or aerial appliance, at a cost of €800,000 plus VAT. In September 2021, Dublin City Council requested approval for the purchase of a new turntable ladder, at a cost of €850,000. This application is under consideration by the Department and is likely to be approved in the immediate future.

The provision of enhanced communications and mobilisation systems for fire services across the country, including in Dublin, has also been proceeding over the past several years. The Ctrí project is delivering the next generation of communications and mobilisation systems for local authority fire services. All fire station equipment and radio communication terminals in fire service vehicles across the country, including Dublin, have been replaced successfully with digital equipment. While the current three regional systems have operated successfully since the early 1990s, the replacement of first-generation mobilisation technology is enabling us to develop enhanced resilience for 999 calls.

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