John Kelly (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I support Senator Gerard P. Craughwell, not in the search for his stolen Honda 50 but on the issue of the impending firemen's dispute which may end up in strike action. For a long time both the local authorities and the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government have been cutting costs by reducing the number of firemen being sent out on calls. They produced a document entitled, Keeping Communities Safe, but all the document states is that there are going to be fewer people called out to deal with accidents and fires. I do not even think the Minister realises what is going on. I have brought it to his attention and will call on the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government to defuse the situation. It is not the Minister who is driving this - it is driven purely by civil servants. He must realise that we need to at least keep the status quoand, if possible, improve the service. I told the Minister for Health, Deputy Leo Varadkar, in the House last week that not only should we value the work of firemen, we should also enhance their training to bring them up to first responder level. This would defuse the dispute and help to avoid the impending strike.