Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is important that when we address a Topical Issue, the Minister in question is here to address it. It is very important. I am very respectful that the Minister of State is here but I would have to say that I am concerned.

I was contacted by a number of constituents from the constituency both the Minister of State and I represent, namely, Carlow-Kilkenny. Some of them are retained firefighters while others are members of the Garda or paramedics. There are significant concerns regarding conditions, pay rates and pensions. I will speak about retained firefighters because I understand that they are to take industrial action on 6 June. While they do not want to do this, they feel they have no choice. They will attend fires, however, so if there is a fire it will be attended to.

My understanding is that there have been talks between the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform and SIPTU. As the talks are ongoing, hopefully we will have a good result. A retained firefighter who might have given 30 years of excellent service will come out with a small lump sum but a new retained firefighter will get very little coming out. He or she will get a very small lump sum, if any, and when he or she reaches the age of 60, he or she will be lucky to come out with €12 to €14 extra in his or her pension.

A number of members of Carlow Fire and Rescue Service are now forced to retire even though they would very much like to stay on after reaching the age of 60, assuming they pass a medical. That is very important because we are haemorrhaging staff from the emergency services and this could be a way to address it. Local government authorities could look at extending the retirement age across the country and we need to look at rates of pay and pensions. I will take Carlow County Council as an example, where you can stay up to the age of 70. It is optional. I understand this does not apply to retained firefighters, however, who can work up to the age of 55. After the age of 55, they must undergo an annual medical until they are 60 but then they must retire. There are some firefighters who want to stay on. They are in very good health and do not mind doing medicals but they have mortgages and children who are living at home and they just need to stay on for a bit longer once they pass their medical.

Pay for anyone starting out is very low. I met a firefighter this week. He is a young man who has not been long in the job. He told me he went to look for a mortgage but could not get one. The banks would not even look at him. They said they could not look at him for a mortgage. We now have people working for local government who are unable to qualify for a mortgage. I could even speak about Garda members, who are the same. There is a significant challenge when it comes to recruiting gardaí. We need to look at that.

Our ambulance paramedics do an excellent job. A lady in Carlow who had a bad fall. There is a central location in Dublin so everything is centralised and is based on the telephone call. They rang for an ambulance. I do not blame the ambulance paramedics, who are doing a great job but as the people they rang said they would be waiting for an ambulance for an hour, our fire service came along, did a lot and got everything sorted, so well done. If we cannot recruit and cannot retain the excellent firefighters, gardaí and ambulance paramedics, then we need to give them proper pay and conditions in order that people can get a mortgage if they are in that line of work.

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