Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

I do not, but this is a general point about how the Government has responded to motions. To people tracking this, it is clear how, six or nine months ago, the Government decided that it did not want pictures of it voting against stuff that people thought was eminently reasonable and it would instead allow those motions to pass. It would not vote against them but it would not necessarily implement them either. I hope that will not be the case in this instance. Not resourcing the fire brigade properly would be a difficult argument to make.

I was watching the debate and a point was made by a number of Deputies about the broad public support for the fire brigade. That point is correct and it is right that the brigade has such support. I warn the Government, though, as that broad public support will carry through into broad public support for industrial action if the firefighters feel that is necessary. It will not wane. The public will see that these people, who are putting their lives on the line to protect society day in and day out, feel it is necessary to take industrial action in order to ensure that our fire services are properly resourced and people are safe. That broad public support will continue. This should be extra pressure on the Government to follow through on the motion's acceptance.

In the remainder of my time, I will focus on a particular issue that has featured reasonably prominently in this debate, that of high-rise buildings or tall and complex buildings, as firefighters refer to them. It was reported in August by a firefighter, Mr. John Mahon, in speaking to the Dublin Inquirerthat the Dublin Fire Brigade did not have the training or equipment it needed to tackle blazes in high-rise buildings. I understand from speaking to fire brigade personnel that there are two issues, those being, training and equipment, by which I mean aerial appliances. Consider the development of Dublin as a city. There is a moderately dense city centre, relatively low-density building as far as the outskirts and, at the outskirts in Tallaght, Blanchardstown, Finglas and around the M50 ring, a proliferation of reasonably high-rise developments of six, seven, eight or nine storeys. That development is accelerating. In some areas, the strategic housing development process, which is thankfully being closed, has been used to drive that. This raises a serious issue if high-rise developments are getting approved and we do not have the equipment and training necessary to ensure that those who will live there are safe.

As I understand it, there is very good training available in Dublin Fire Brigade to deal with tall and complex buildings. I also understand that aerial appliances, for example, are not the answer all by themselves, because once you go above a certain height, you are not going to get people out via an aerial appliance and you must get them out through the inside of the building. It is very dangerous and specialised work for which training is required. The point, as I understand it, is that because of the under-resourcing and understaffing of the fire brigade, people are not able to get the training as there is a need to be able to cover the service on a daily basis. Covid has had an extra impact in terms of knocking people out, and then there are not enough people left to be able to facilitate enough people to get the training that needs to be done. We have an under-trained fire service as it stands, although we have people with enormous talents, skills and the capacity to provide the training, but it is not currently happening.

The second issue is equipment. The fire at the Glashaus Hotel and apartments in Tallaght a month and a half ago was mentioned. The stories that emerged from that were truly terrifying. People were trapped on their balconies in fear of their lives waiting to be rescued. The amount of time they were trapped on the balconies was prolonged because of the lack of equipment. The balconies were on the fifth and sixth storeys, which was a level where they could be rescued via aerial appliance, and in fact were ultimately rescued by aerial appliance. The reason they had to wait for at least 20 minutes, and some say they waited longer than that, is that the aerial appliance had to be transported from Tara Street to Tallaght. One of the tenants was quoted as saying: "We kept thinking we were going to be burnt to ashes and maybe they would find our bodies hugging each other."

I tabled a parliamentary question to the Minister and I got an answer saying:

Dublin Fire Brigade's fleet of aerial appliances consists of two turntable ladders based at Dublin Fire Brigade Headquarters in Tara Street, and a hydraulic platform based at Dún Laoghaire Fire Station, all of which can be deployed rapidly to anywhere in the functional area of the four local authorities.

Does the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, or the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, really think that 20 minutes is an adequate response time for someone who is trapped on a balcony with their home burning behind them and the entire building going up in flames? The Tánaiste agreed with me last week when I asked him about it, as did a firefighter to whom I spoke earlier, that the appliances need to be locally based. Not every area across the city or the country where there is high-rise development will have a specific area for aerial appliances, but they need to be based in areas whereby they can rapidly get to areas when needed. It is not the case that we only have high-rise building at Tara Street and Dún Laoghaire. Action must be taken urgently to ensure that where there are high-rise developments that the aerial appliances that are needed can get there rapidly to save people's lives. We need a commitment from the Government to have that, as well as a commitment to properly resource and staff the firefighting service so that the necessary training can be provided, but also that the appropriate service can be provided at all times.

See this speech in context