Brian Stanley (Laois, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am raising the issue of the need for a new fire station in Rathdowney. This has been sought for a number of years now. The current station was built to house a jeep and the small mobile pump they used to pull behind them. I do not know if the Minister of State would remember them, the old Land Rovers. Smaller towns had them and that is what the station housed. There are three vehicles there now, including two large fire tenders and one jeep. Only one of the larger vehicles and the jeep can be housed in it. It is very difficult to get the large tender in and out because it is on a narrow street and it is a very small building. I can tell the Minister of State it takes good skill. I witnessed one of the crew reversing it in recently. It took great skill to get it in and out. That slows down the response time in terms of getting out to calls.

There is a larger fire crew there now. It was down to four and five for a year or two. It is now up to nine and is due to go to 12. There will be 12 firefighters in that station but there is physically no space for them. The changing area is absolutely tiny, about 2.5 m or 3 m in each direction. It is basically a small cubicle of an area to change in. I also bring it to the Minister of State's attention that some of the firefighters are women. There are three women, including Shusha Killeen, the station officer who is doing a good job there along with the very committed staff in the station who maintain the equipment very well.

The station is serving a large area across south Laois, across nearly into Roscrea, Ballaghmore, across to Offaly, back across to north Kilkenny and all that area, back into Errill and Ballinakill and up as far as Abbeyleix. It is a huge area. There is a real problem with space in the station. They have good equipment; the system has been modernised over the years and money has been put into it. I acknowledge that the equipment has improved dramatically. They just need extra space. They have one shower. As the Minster of State can imagine, it is totally unacceptable for a large crew to come back in after a house fire or any kind of fire and have one shower between them.

There is no parking area. They have to look for parking at a business down the road and hope the little area in front of that is not already full up. Otherwise, they have to park on kerbs and on double yellow lines, so there is a real problem with that. The good news is there is a site literally around the corner from it. People can drive in and through it. It is one of those new fire stations that have been modernised and which people can drive through, like they have in other stations in County Laois. These can be put in.

It is a shovel-ready project. We do not need to draw up new plans. There are existing plans that have been used in similar towns. As I said to the Minister for housing yesterday, we should stop running to architects the whole time - we do not need to. Copy and paste; give whoever drew up the plans a bit of extra money for the royalties and get on with the plans we already have. This is a shovel-ready project. The Minister of State knows the importance of the fire service. Pay and conditions have been improved, which we all welcome. A lot of us campaigned with them to get that. I acknowledge that their equipment has improved dramatically in the past ten to 15 years. Training has improved. In Rathdowney, though, what is missing is the new fire station.

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