Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

Cork City Fire Brigade has been operating at 75% strength for the past year. When the city boundary was extended in 2019, the civic fire service took on the station at Ballincollig, the retained staff there and an extra truck. Since then, the retained firefighters have been promoted to full-time positions and are based at the fire station headquarters on Anglesea Street in the city centre. In taking those positions they replaced other firefighters who retired. There are now no retained officers at Ballincollig and the city is left with four pumps, with only enough staff to man three of them. The number of full-time firefighters covering a population of 240,000 in the extended city boundary, is the same as the number that previously covered 126,000 people. Full-time staffing in the Cork city area is the same today as it was in 1975. This is dangerous for the population and the firefighters.

Late last week, the fire at R&H Hall should have been attended by four trucks.

It was instead attended by just two because a truck should always be kept in reserve. This summer, a woman jumped into the River Lee at Morrison’s Island. The person who went in to rescue her also got into trouble. A rescue unit crewed by two firefighters arrived on the scene, but no fire pumps were available - the nearest was in Carrigaline. The officer was faced with a choice of jumping in without sufficient back-up or watching the woman drown. He decided to jump in. That kind of stuff looks good on television. Luckily, he succeeded in rescuing the woman and the second person made it to the ladder on the quay wall. In reality, that officer risked his life by taking a chance he should never have been forced to even consider.

I call on the Minister to instruct Cork City Council to crew the Ballincollig fire station with sufficient full-time staff to crew the fourth pump. This is a vital and crucial issue. I call on the Minister to move on that. If Cork City Council does not take action, he needs to instruct it to do so.

See this speech in context