Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Once again I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. As he identified, my Department recently published a review of retained fire services. That review made a number of recommendations, one of which the Deputy referred to, namely, recommendation 6.

It states, "A review should be completed for any potential areas of response work that could be undertaken by the retained fire services for other agencies." The review's recommendations are intended to support firefighters, improve working structures within the retained fire service and, ultimately, ensure the best service possible for communities that are served so well by the retained fire services.

The work and response profile of the retained fire services has evolved over the years. This can be seen in the increased support for front-line work and in the assistance for other principal emergency services such as the National Ambulance Service, NAS. The scope of such work needs further consideration as necessary in areas such as medical assistance, cardiac first responders, special rescues and support. Fire services would always look to assist other emergency services when called upon. However, there currently exists no formal arrangement between the fire service, the HSE and the NAS to provide a first response service nationally and fire services are under no statutory responsibility to provide those services on behalf of another service. Fire services must be confident in their ability to balance commitments so as not to impede capacity to respond to their core statutory responsibility of fire service provision, prior to formalising any additional service level agreements.

I will follow up on recommendation No. 6. There is a need for a national response and I will take that up with the national fire service to see how we can progress on that recommendation. There is a need for a national response to put formal structures in place. This is something I will follow up on with the national fire service in my capacity as Minister of State.

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