Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am bringing this statement on behalf of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

Our firefighters, as the Senator says, do incredibly valuable work on a daily basis.The retained fire service is an elite front-line service staffed by dedicated people who serve their communities around the clock. There is no doubt that the efforts of retained firefighters and those of their full-time colleagues first and foremost save lives, prevent damage to residential and commercial property, protect critical infrastructure and safeguard the environment. The work of these brave men and women can be physically challenging and psychologically demanding. We need only look to the recent flooding events in Munster and Leinster, where fire crews worked tirelessly to protect homes and evacuate people from properties inundated with floodwaters, for the evidence of their professionalism.

In May 2021, the Minister tasked the national directorate for fire and emergency management, NDFEM, with undertaking a review of recruitment and retention in the retained fire service. The Senator has alluded to that being a big issue. This review report, which was published by the Minister in December 2022, made 13 recommendations aimed at improving recruitment, retention and service delivery within the retained fire service. As the Senator said, the Minister is committed to implementing those recommendations.

The Department moved to commence implementation of the report through an independently chaired process that looked first at the issue of terms and conditions. Unfortunately, that process ultimately did not lead to an agreement. Following a period of industrial action in the retained service, both parties to the dispute, namely, the retained firefighters and the LGMA acting on behalf of the local authority employers, agreed a resolution to the industrial unrest, which the Senator alluded to, through a mediation process at the WRC. That agreement built upon the strong foundation of an earlier Labour Court recommendation and immediately addressed the priority areas of additional structured time off and the rebalancing of remuneration recommended by the retained review report.

The new service model agreed will see all fire stations brought to a minimum of 12 firefighters per station, which I think the Senator mentioned, with six firefighters available to respond on a rotational week on-week off basis. Within this provision, retained firefighters will have the flexibility to swap days with colleagues and may continue to attend calls when rostered off, if they so wish. An estimated 400 personnel will be recruited by local authorities to establish this new model, which will also provide for approximately 50 additional promotional posts. Week on-week off rosters will commence as soon as the crewing levels are sufficient to allow for it and recruitment will be a priority in this regard.

On remuneration, the WRC proposal includes measures to fix elements of pay that were previously activity-based, relating to drill payments, community fire safety and a minimum fixed payment for attendance at incidents. This will result in a starting income in excess of €19,000 for newly recruited retained firefighters and a new, shorter, four-point pay scale will allow retained firefighters to reach the top of their scale much quicker. It is envisaged all local authorities will now transition to fortnightly guaranteed fixed payments to be made up of weekly drill hours paid at the standard first hour of incident attendance rate; 40 hours of community fire safety work by the station, such as home fire safety visits and pre-incident planning; each fire station will be allocated an additional bank of 40 hours per firefighter that can be undertaken at his or her discretion; a minimum attendance payment equivalent to 75 hours at the standard rate and payments for attendance at incidents in excess of 75 hours will be made in accordance with existing arrangements; and an increase to the retainer fee as set out in the Labour Court recommendation. In addition, the premium rate hours for incident call-outs has been broadened to start at 8 p.m. and finish at 8 a.m., Monday to Friday.