Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In January, the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, brought an independent report to Cabinet on the retained fire service. We accepted the recommendations of that report. Negotiations were ongoing up until a few weeks ago. A third-party negotiator, Mr. Ultan Courtney, was appointed to chair those talks. An offer was made which would involve: a 20% increase in staffing, with a minimum of 12 firefighters in all fire stations; structured time off, recognising the need for proper work-life balance; individual flexibility with regard to availability; 50 additional promotional positions; and flexibility to attend calls when scheduled on leave if desired.

There is an outstanding issue relating to core pay. The difficulty that arises is that we have an agreement with the trade unions as a whole on public sector pay. It is called Building Momentum. We are going to honour that agreement. It is only reasonable that we should expect the union side to honour that agreement as well. There is room for talks. There is room for compromise. There is the capacity for intervention. The offer is there to allow talks to resume and to do so under the offices of the WRC, which is the Government body that intervenes in disputes such as this.

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