Donie Cassidy (Fianna Fail)

Senators Fitzgerald, Boyle, McCarthy, Leyden, Buttimer, Quinn and O'Toole expressed shock and horror at the terrible tragedy involving the two firemen in Bray. Senator de Búrca raised this issue yesterday. This House should send our sympathies to the families concerned.

I know at first hand the significant investment that has been made in the fire service over the past 30 years because my entire family has been involved with the service since it was established in 1946. My father and uncle were directly involved and my brother was a station officer for 37 years until he retired three years ago. The establishment of a national fire authority is urgently needed and should have happened five years ago. There is no point in saying anything else.

I listened to the professional comments made on the radio this morning. As Senator Fitzgerald noted, the population in Lucan has exploded by 50,000 people and towns such as it and Bray need a permanent fire-fighting service. However, part-time officers are well trained as well as courageous and dedicated people. Accidents are never planned; they just unfortunately happen. It is to be hoped the loss of the two men's lives will prevent a repeat of this tragedy in that the Minister and Department concerned will bring an initiative within the next two weeks. I intend to allow time in this House so that everyone concerned can address the serious challenges they face. I put the Minister and Department on notice that we will have a serious debate within the next three weeks. Five years has been too long. I do not say these unfortunate firemen died because of a lack of action but the new Government has a five-year term ahead of it and money was never as freely available nor the economy as buoyant.