Dáil debates

Tuesday, 9 May 2023

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate

Fire Stations

10:40 pm

Photo of Thomas GouldThomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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Fire brigade staff in Cork have raised concerns with me, Deputy Ó Laoghaire and local councillors on the ground about their ability to ensure there is a proper fire service in Cork. There are currently three pumps in operation in Cork, with 18 crewing on a 24-7 basis. Once there were 18 staff covering a population of 126,000 but they are now expected to cover a population of over 240,000 as a result of the boundary extension of Cork city. Within the same area, they used four full-time pumps.

Ballincollig fire station closed in November 2021 and has not yet reopened. Last July saw 300 fires responded to by the fire brigade in Cork. They do Trojan work and save lives regularly, in addition to businesses and homes, and they need the pump in Ballincollig reopened. The staff who man it tell me they are overstretched, causing difficulties for them. The council keeps pointing to a recruitment campaign for retained staff to reopen the service but the reality is that this has failed.

The campaign has been running since October 2020 - almost three years - but the council has yet to hire a single retained staff member. We need full-time staff and Ballincollig fire station needs to be reopened. Will the Minister of State provide funding for that and give the firefighters of Cork that commitment?

The fire station closed in November 2021, just days after the Government party councillors voted to cut the fire service budget in Cork City Council. Is that a coincidence? At last night's meeting of Cork City Council, a call for the reopening of Ballincollig fire station was unanimously passed by councillors from all parties and none who called on the Minister of State and the Government to provide the funding.

10:50 pm

Photo of Donnchadh Ó LaoghaireDonnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Ballincollig is a place that has grown from not much more than a village 40 or 50 years ago to one of the biggest towns in Ireland. There are well over 20,000 people there and when the census results come out, there could be 25,000 people. The fire service has been there for much of that time but the growth in the area has significantly overtaken the station. It is important to understand this, and not only in the context of Ballincollig. It is very important for Ballincollig and its outlying area. It is a crucial piece of the jigsaw. Since Ballincollig has come into the functional area of Cork City Council, it is a key part of the jigsaw of the whole city's fire service and each station assists each other. It is a city of 200,000 people or more and each service has a crucial role to play.

The staff there are pulling their hair out. The station has been closed since November 2021. When you boil it down, we are talking about a closed fire station. They are concerned for their own situation and the implications for the safety of the people of Cork. We are coming into the summer, which is potentially the most hazardous part of the year and a time when they might have the most issues to respond to. Upcoming occasions like bonfire night will be very busy for the fire service. When they are overstretched, it presents a threat to their own safety and welfare so this is crucially important.

Clearly, the retained firefighter model is not working for Ballincollig. I am not sure if it is particularly practical in any community but in a place like Ballincollig where most people are working full-time in multinational corporations and so on, it is not always that easy to find an arrangement with your employer that allows you to be on call. It clearly has not worked because the recruitment has not been successful and they have not been able to take on any staff over the course of this period. It has led to a situation where we have a closed fire station. A building that could serve Ballincollig and a significant chunk of the city and protect people's welfare is not available as a resource. We want the council to come forward with a recommendation. If it does, will the Minister of State sanction additional full-time staff?

Photo of Patrick O'DonovanPatrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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I am taking this Topical Issue on behalf of the Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy O'Donnell. The provision of a fire service in its functional area, including the establishment and maintenance of a fire brigade, the assessment of fire cover needs and the provision of fire station premises, is a statutory function of individual fire authorities under the Fire Service Acts 1981 and 2003.

The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage supports fire authorities by establishing policy, setting national standards for fire safety and fire service provision, providing a central training programme, issuing guidance on operational and other related matters and providing capital funding for priority infrastructural projects and the procurement of essential front-line fire appliances, ancillary vehicles and equipment.

Fire services are provided in Ireland by local authorities in accordance with the provisions of the Fire Services Acts 1981 and 2003. Under this legislation, 31 local authorities provide fire prevention and fire protection services for communities through 27 service delivery structures. Local authority fire services are delivered by approximately 3,300 local authority staff engaged at 217 fire stations nationwide with 16 of these stations being staffed by full-time firefighters, a further four having a mix of full-time and retained firefighters, and 197 being staffed by retained firefighters.

Following the boundary extension of Cork city in May 2019, the retained fire station at Ballincollig, which was previously under the auspices of Cork county fire service, was incorporated into the Cork City Council fire service. I understand that following a recruitment competition, a number of the city council's retained firefighters from Ballincollig fire station were successful in securing whole-time positions in the council's fire service. This resulted in vacancies in the retained fire service at Ballincollig. As an interim measure, Cork City Council deployed a crew of whole-time firefighters from the fire brigade headquarters in Anglesea Street to respond calls in the Ballincollig station area while a recruitment process got under way to fill the retained firefighter vacancies in Ballincollig.

The prioritisation of work and effective management of all resources is, in the first instance, a matter for the fire authority, based on its assessment of risk, needs and resources. In relation to the staffing requirements in each local authority, under the Local Government Act 2001, it is the responsibility of each chief executive to employ such staff and to make such staffing, funding, recruitment and organisational arrangements as may be deemed necessary for the purposes of carrying out the functions of his or her local authority.

It was the determination of Cork City Council following an assessment by senior fire service management that the interim measure of placing a whole-time crew at Ballincollig fire station was a significant overprovision of fire service cover from a risk assessment perspective, and could not be sustained. The average number of calls per week for the period was four, categorising this as C2 in terms of risk profile, which is substantially below the threshold that would justify whole-time staffing. Consequently, the interim measure was withdrawn and crews currently respond to fire calls in the Ballincollig area from Cork city. Cork City Council has determined this to be the optimal approach given the current constraints in recruiting retained firefighters in Ballincollig.

Following the publication of the Keeping Communities Safe policy document in 2013, which set national norms, standards and targets for the provision of safe and effective fire services in Ireland, fire authorities were requested to undertake an initial area risk categorisation process for their functional area using a process set out in Keeping Communities Safe and to prepare a short report on the process and outcomes. The area risk categorisation process resulted in the area to which the first response is sent by each fire station, known as the "fire station ground", being assigned an area risk categorisation grading.

Over the course of 2014 and 2015, an external validation group, EVG, from the management board of the national directorate for fire and emergency management in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage visited every local authority in the country as part of the first external validation process on area risk categorisation in Ireland arising from implementation of Keeping Communities Safe. This culminated in the publication of the first EVG report entitled, Local Delivery - National Consistency. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage will be conducting a second EVG process, which is due to take place in 2025.

A further capacity review of local authority fire services, Response, Resilience and Recovery - A Review of the Impact of Covid-19 on Irish Fire Services, was also completed in 2020. It reported many strengths and the outstanding commitment and effort of front-line teams, and made recommendations for service development that are now in the final stages of implementation.

Photo of Thomas GouldThomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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The firefighters have been to the WRC numerous times and have still not been able to reach a solution. The firefighters are telling me that they are willing to work with Cork City Council. Billy Crowley, who is one of the firefighters, said they want to resolve this issue. Having retained staff is not going to work in Ballincollig. They need full-time staff with the Ballincollig fire station reopened. Why has Cork City Council been insistent for almost three years on trying to recruit retained staff? These are on-call firefighters. In 2023 in the town of Ballincollig, which is now part of Cork city, those people do not work in the village like they did in the old days. They could be working for Apple in Ringaskiddy or in Little Island. This model does not work. We want Cork City Council to put what it has to offer on the table and engage with the workers. I gave a figure. The existing cohort of fire staff is the same now as it was in 1975, which is 48 years ago. How can that be right?

Photo of Donnchadh Ó LaoghaireDonnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Two points arise here. The first concerns the WRC. The firefighters are telling us that they have been to the WRC on two occasions about issues relating to this so there is no lack of engagement on their part but, unfortunately, it has not borne fruit.

The Minister of State is not wrong. It is to a large extent a local government function. I appreciate that but we came here with a particular ask. We are not asking the Minister of State to second-guess the functions of Cork City Council. Obviously, a portion of this has to be worked through. If it comes to a point, which we are working on and we hope the WRC and the firefighters can get to that point, where Cork City Council brings a proposal forward to the Minister of State seeking full-time staff, will he okay it?

That is the function the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, and his Department has regarding this.  Will he give it clearance because I think it is warranted?

11:00 pm

Photo of Patrick O'DonovanPatrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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As Deputy Ó Laoghaire points out, I am taking this on behalf of the Minister of State, Deputy O’Donnell. It is important to note that the non-availability of any particular fire station does not mean that fire risk management, including fire service response, is diminished. The systemic approach to fire risk management, which has been the policy in use in this country for a more than a decade, has seen a welcome and steady downward trend in fire losses in Ireland. While each fire death is one too many, the fire fatality rate per million of population, averaged over three years, stands at 4.3. Everyone will recognise that is too high but it is one third of what it was 20 years ago which is a huge improvement. That level of fire fatalities positions Ireland among countries with very low fire fatality rates.

Provision of a retained fire service in Ballincollig remains the objective of Cork City Council, and there is a live recruitment campaign for retained firefighters in Ballincollig. It is hoped that suitable candidates in Ballincollig will be interested in taking up roles as retained firefighters, and, going back to what Deputy Gould said, that the local business community will consider facilitating any staff that go forward for this valuable community service.

The Department continues to support the council through the Minister’s fire services capital programme, with approved expenditure in excess of €1.8 million since 2020 for the procurement of emergency appliances in the form of a new aerial appliance, a new class B fire tender and additional fire service vehicles and equipment.

In conclusion, I note what Deputy Ó Laoghaire said in relation to the Workplace Relations Commission having invited Cork City Council and staff representatives to talks with a view to build a consensus and find a resolution on the Ballincollig dispute. On behalf of the Minister of State, I strongly encourage all parties involved to use the established industrial relations machinery of the State to resolve this dispute in the interests of the people in the area.