John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It was the Minister's failure to address the recruitment and retention crisis that destabilised the retained fire service right across the State and forced these retained firefighters into having no alternative but to initiate industrial and strike action. This is down to the Minister and his consistent failure. We know the key issues here. We know the constraints that have been placed on the retained firefighters, including work-life balance and being on call 24-7. We also know about the recommendations.

Recommendation 2 states, "A new framework for service delivery is required that ... provides remuneration, which effectively balances the availability requirements" for the retained firefighters, so it is there in black and white that remuneration needs to be addressed. However, negotiations between the LGMA and the retained firefighters broke down because of the constraints that were put by the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, on the ability to deliver a solution to this, and to essentially deal with remuneration. The Government was responsible for breaking down the negotiations. That is why we are currently before the WRC. It is the Minister's failure that has led us to the situation we are in.

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