Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Kelly for raising this matter, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Hogan, who is unavoidably absent. The Minister, Deputy Hogan, recently adopted and published Keeping Communities Safe, the national policy for fire services and fire safety.

Keeping Communities Safe is the blueprint for changes which will align fire services and fire safety in Ireland with international best practice. The policy document was prepared by the Department's national directorate for fire and emergency management in a collaborative process which included the expert input of chief fire officers and fire services personnel and an extensive round of consultation with stakeholders. The overarching objectives of the policy are to ensure as far as possible that people and property are protected from fire and that fire service personnel are as safe as possible when going about their work. The challenges are to reduce the incidence of fire through better fire safety and prevention, ensure an effective response when fires occur and maximise the safety at work of the fire service personnel. To address these challenges, Keeping Communities Safe is underpinned by a risk management approach in which identified risks are balanced with appropriate prevention, protection and response strategies.

For the first time in Ireland, Keeping Communities Safe puts in place an approach to setting national standards for our fire services. The standards, and associated targets, cover the full range of tasks, including mobilisation, initial pre-determined attendance, normal crewing levels and incident reductions. These are intended for use locally but will give us a consistent national approach. The area risk categorisation is one of the first tasks to be undertaken locally by each fire service. This will enable a benchmarking of local services against the associated response service targets. These targets are graded according to risk-rating and national pre-determined attendances are set for the various categories of incidents. Using this approach we can appropriately gauge quality, performance and effectiveness into the future. The risk management approach supports the ability to target resources at fire prevention in our communities and thereby reduce incidents which lead to loss.

The question of whether we should move to a national fire service structure was also considered. In the context of local government's excellent track record in providing effective fire services and the vision for local government set out by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government in Putting People First, which was published late last year, the Minister concluded that local authorities are best placed to continue providing fire services for our communities. This will ensure that provision of fire services are underpinned by local democracy and local accountability. However, in the interests of efficient, quality and value-for-money services, we are moving towards a more shared service structure by reducing the current 30 fire service delivery units to 21, comprising 14 single fire authority services and seven multi-authority shared services arrangements serving populations in the region of 120,000 to 200,000 generally. One of the seven shared service delivery units is Roscommon-Sligo-Leitrim.

The importance of safety for our 3,200 fire fighters and officers as they go about their work cannot be over-emphasised. The risk management approach is intended to ensure that, despite the hazardous nature of the job, all fire service personnel are as safe as possible in their work. Keeping Communities Safe prioritises the development of a safety management system which will complement other safety at work initiatives introduced into the fire service over the last decade, as well as the ongoing training programme within the fire services.

In summary, Keeping Communities Safe will help make Ireland a safer place to live, work and visit. It has been developed using a collaborative approach between central and local government, and involved extensive consultations with all stakeholders. The same ethos and approach will be adopted as we now move to its implementation.