Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would like to welcome all the men and women from our retained firefighters who are here this evening. I thank them for taking time to attend. I also acknowledge those who cannot be here as it is important that we do that. I want to acknowledge and be clear that this is a genuine case that has been put before this House this evening, as indeed is what has been articulated over the past a number of years. I appreciate the work that is going into it. I would also like to sympathise with and give my condolences to the families in, and to the community of, Creeslough, which has experienced so much loss. I want to put on the record of the House my thanks to all those who were involved in the rescue efforts.

A number of Deputies referenced why the Government is not agreeing to the motion before the House tonight. The text of the motion and the way it was drafted contains three paragraphs condemning the leadership of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O’Brien. Deputies will appreciate that there is no way that the Government could vote for a motion that condemns its own Minister, who is clearly passionate about our firefighters and has set in train process to try to resolve the issues. Sometimes motions are tabled in this House and Deputies stand up and ask why the Government will not accept them, but all reasonable people would know that one will not vote for a motion that condemns one’s own leadership, when we have put forward a substantive countermotion on how we are responding. I say genuinely that is not against the firefighters but the text of the motion. As I said, no one disagrees with the retained firefighters, or with the invaluable service and essential work they do in our communities. I meet with them on a weekly basis and I have met many from my own constituency in relation to this issue. There is no doubt that they save so many lives, prevent damage to property, protect critical infrastructure and safeguard the environment. We are indebted to them for their work and their sacrifice, because they often face so much danger and significant risk.

I would like to clarify the role of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. Its role is supporting fire authorities by setting general policy and national standards, providing central training programmes, issuing guidance on operational and other related matters and providing capital funding support for equipment and priority infrastructure projects. While the Minister, Deputy Darragh O’Brien, has responsibility for fire services, he has no operational role in respect of our fire services. On the other hand, the local authority fire service in Ireland is staffed by more than 3,000 professional, competent and highly committed personnel, full-time and retained fire services.

Local authorities, as the funders and employers of the fire service personnel, have demonstrated their commitment to this service. It is important to note that the number of front-line fire service staff have been maintained at a high level even at a time when staffing numbers were out of necessity reduced in other areas of the local authorities. The fire service is operated at a local authority level by 27 individual fire authorities. There are 218 fire stations throughout the country with 3,245 serving fire service personnel, of whom 2,065 are retained on a 24-hour basis.

The work of our fire services has changed considerably over the past two decades and this is reflected in the changes in incident types that have been attended by fire services. In the period, the proportion of fires attended has decreased from a level of 62% of incidents in 2000 to 45% in 2021. By the same token, special service incidents attended has increased rapidly from 19% in 2000 to 35% in 2021. The changing profile has resulted in ongoing reviews and fire service risk assessments, response capability, equipment and training requirements. Retained fire stations were mobilised on an average of 24,750 times annually over the period from 2016 to 2020 to incidents including fires, road traffic collisions, special rescue and general services. The range of incident activity varies considerably across the services from stations with low numbers of callouts to busy retained stations.

A tangible and welcome result of the efforts of fire services is a downward trend in incidents of fire in Ireland with the fire fatality rate per million of population, using a three-year average, currently at 4.3 deaths per million of population. While as we all very well and acutely know, each death is one too many, this figure is a third of what it was 20 years ago when it stood at 12.9 deaths per million of population. The level of fatalities from fires in Ireland is a low rate compared with other countries. I want to again acknowledge the great work that our fire services have in making that a reality.

As my colleague, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O’Brien, has already stated, he has listened to concerns being raised in relation to our retained fire service in Ireland. He is acting on this and a review in collaboration with the retained firefighter, the fire services national oversight and implementation group, FSNOIG, the Local Government Management Agency, LGMA and the Department is soon to be completed and presented to the management board of the National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management.

It is a priority for both the Minister and Department to begin this implementation process in order to respond to the genuine issues which have been raised here tonight. This will require a sequence of steps and developments to improve firefighter work-life balance and to ensure that the retained service is seen as a place of opportunity for a career for both male and female firefighters. There is a significant urgency in moving forward with the implementation of the review’s recommendations, however, it should be noted that the capacity of resilience of fire service has been shown to be robust through the external validation process in 2016 and the capacity review in 2020.

In December 2021, the Omicron variant of Covid-19 caused a steep increase in infection rates right across the country. In anticipation of the impact on the delivery of fire services, the National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management issued a circular advising immediate protective actions to be taken by all fire services to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in the fire service. Simultaneously, the National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management worked with local authorities to underpin resilient measures recommended in the capacity review report. Fire services demonstrated strong business continuity measures during the peak of the Omicron wave of infection with no loss of service. The recruitment and retention issues are serious and are now being taken very seriously by the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, and his officials.

The Minister also mentioned that while the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is not the employer, it supports all fire services in Ireland through its fire services capital programme. The latest programme has an allocation of €61 million to support the building of 12 fire stations already under way, six new stations and refurbishment works planned for another nine stations. The invaluable financial support is continuing with the fleet programme. An allocation of €27.7 million has been made with the first tranche providing 35 appliances at an approximate cost of €16 million.

The Department continues to work with the Office of Government Procurement and will shortly have secured extension of a fire appliance scheme with a further budget of €17 million indicated. A further €5 million has been allocated to support the procurement of other fire and emergency rescue equipment and €2 million allocated to further progress the mobilisation and communications project.

There is also a focus on training for all fire personnel, with the NDFEM providing the annual training programme, which offers courses for local authority fire service officers and supports the ability of fire authorities to deliver efficient and effective fire and rescue services. The quality of training delivered by the NDFEM has been beneficial to fire authorities in assisting their fire officers to develop and maintain consistency in standards, but also to pass through the instruction to firefighters at an official level. The national-level training is complementary to ongoing county station training and drill nights, which provide ongoing continuous training to fire crews in all areas of their work.

The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and my colleague, the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, remain committed to investing in all of our fire services, including retained ones, and we will work with all parties to achieve this. The Minister is confident that the report will be completed and published in December. He will commence work promptly on responding to all of the issues.

I acknowledge the genuine case that has been presented by the firefighters tonight. The Government appreciates their work and we will respond in a timely manner once this report is published. I thank the firefighters for their attendance.

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