John Kelly (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Reducing the number of fire fighters who respond to calls from nine to five is not going to improve safety. Two years ago an incident occurred in Limerick in which one fire tender responded and a Garda and a fireman lost their lives on the road because health and safety requirements were not being fully observed.

We should be selling the property tax to people on the basis that we are providing a service to them. We are not charging for fire services. A considerable number of people are getting bills from local authorities following call-outs but the reality is that house insurance only covers a proportion of the cost. It was recently suggested that whatever portion of a house insurance policy is paid to the insurance companies should be paid to local authorities to provide the service. That is one way of financing it.

An individual from Scotland contributed extensively to this report. In Scotland there is one fireman for every 500 of population. In Ireland the ratio is 1:1,600.