Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputy Connolly. I am happy to support this motion on the retained firefighters and I thank Sinn Féin for bringing it forward.

It is a sad reflection on the Department and on the Government that the firefighters feel they have no other option but to take strike action to have their concerns listened to by the Government. The firemen have commenced a rolling stoppage throughout the country to ensure we have no area without coverage while trying to have their grievance heard as well. This is something they do not do easily and that has to be recognised.

The Government has even recognised the problem itself but, as usual, wants to ignore the solution. In a recent statement by the Department, 58% of current firefighters are likely to leave the service in the next few years. The situation is so bad that many stations can only manage a bare turnout and cannot let anyone go on leave because they were not able to answer a call at all. At least one station in Donegal is down to five firemen. In another station area, advertisements were made for staff recruitment with no applications because of the area rule where firemen have to be living within 2.5 km of the station.

Donegal County Council refuses to give staff time off to attend fire calls and yet it expects employers to give their staff the time to attend call-outs, which is absolutely crazy when you think about it. How can we expect employers to support the fire service when the councils will not even do it themselves as the primary employer and provider of the service?

The fire service plays a very important role in our communities and deserves the support of everyone in the country and the Government. The retained fire crew have the needs of the community at heart and are willing to sacrifice a great deal to be able to carry out the role. I know firemen who have not attended family shopping trips and events, football matches of teams they are involved in and the like because, when they went to the station to mark themselves off as unavailable for call-outs, the minimum number of crew had already been reached so they could not avail of any off time. In this day and age that is difficult for them and their families. There are very few roles in our society today in which workers would be willing to put so much at stake. That, I believe, has to be recognised by the State.

What the firemen are looking for is very reasonable. To have the crew at the station extended to 12, which would allow for a week-on, week-off roster, makes perfect sense. It would get over the need for crews to have to book time off as they would know what weeks they are on all of the time.

The restriction on distance that recruits live from the station needs to be managed as well. It is possible to have people live further away and still manage the call-out times, because it is not possible to recruit on the basis of the distances that are required in many station areas. Surely, if we cannot have enough firemen for a call-out at all, that is even more difficult. There is probably a need for flexibility on that issue, and some areas more than others might have difficulty in actually meeting the distances. I believe that can also be managed through proper management locally.

As I understand it, many of the restrictions are in place under legislation that dates back to the 1950s, and if that is the case it is in bad need of upgrading at this stage. The service needs to be dynamic and recognise that life and society have changed significantly since then. It is totally understandable that the rates of pay should go a long way towards recognising how to make it affordable for somebody to be a member of the fire service, if he or she decides to do that. This is something which should be recognised across society because firefighters play a significant role in the local community and help the local community to defend itself in times of need. That should be recognised.

The Government and the local authorities are taking a dangerous stance on this strike by still rostering on-duty fire crews who are on strike. It is trying to make the crews guilty for anything that may happen. I hope nothing does, but that is very disappointing and it is also a very disappointing tactic for the Government to employ at this stage.

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