Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Copies of the Minster's speech have not been circulated. Perhaps that could be rectified before the end of the debate.

The cause and effect of why we are debating this matter are clear, namely, a lack of political leadership over many years, almost a disdain for retained fire services, a model of delivery that is broken and now the fact 60% of firefighters intend to leave with many of them planning to do so within the next year.

I am somewhat perplexed by the Government amendment in which the Minister sees fit to compare firefighters to other staff in local authorities. With the greatest of respect to them, to say it is like apples and oranges comes nowhere near it. Increases in capital investment, refurbishment of stations and all the new equipment are all meaningless if there are not enough firefighters to use it. Any investment must be done on a fit-for-purpose model and with the appropriate oversight. The retained firefighters cannot retain experienced personnel, nor recruit significant amounts of new members, due to the pay and conditions of the job. That is what the focus of the Government should be.

I take this opportunity to acknowledge the role of our retained fire services, especially the valued first responders from both Westmeath and Longford, who are in the Gallery this evening with their colleagues. I thank them for their tireless work and their commitment. I thank also their families and employers, without whose support they simply would not be able to do the valuable work we need and ask them to do. Despite all the problems, many of which the Minister listed, they show up, they do their job and they serve our communities to the best of their abilities. Despite this, contained in the Government amendment the Minister has the audacity to cite "4.3 deaths per million of population of fire fatalities" as if these firefighters' only role is to turn up to fires. That is what is insinuated in this.

We are all in agreement this situation cannot be allowed to continue. I am going to ask, as my colleagues have done before, that the Minister support this motion. The review he mentioned apparently went to him as a draft in February and it is now November. The commitment by the firefighters is not being met by a similar level of commitment from the Government. That is a fundamental flaw in any solution that may be put forward. These are professional and dedicated people. They want to make the fire service better. They want to make it a safer place to work for all their members but that commitment needs to be matched by the Government.

See this speech in context