John Cummins (Waterford, Fine Gael)

I thank Senator Scahill for raising this important matter. He also spoke to me about the issue in Castlerea, separate to this Commencement matter. It is a very important issue and I thank him for raising it.

The provision of a fire service in its functional area, including the establishment and maintenance of a fire brigade, the assessment of fire cover needs and a provision of fire station premises, is a statutory function of individual fire authorities under the Fire Services Act 1981.

Keeping Communities Safe was adopted as Government policy in 2013 and is based on the internationally used systemic risk management approach combining fire safety, fire protection in the built environment and fire service response measures. Keeping Communities Safe provides for the delivery of consistent and effective fire services in Ireland while continuing to reduce the risk from fires in communities and prioritising the safety of fire personnel in their work. The policy sets out the overall approach, the methods and the techniques to achieve the objective of keeping communities safe from fire, and it sets out national norms, standards and targets against which local authorities can benchmark their fire services.

Over the course of 2014 and 2015, an external validation group commissioned by the management board of the National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management visited every fire service in the country as part of a new external validation process arising from the implementation of Keeping Communities Safe. In April 2016, the management board published the first external validation group report, entitled Local Delivery - National Consistency. The findings of the first external validation group process are available on the Department’s website. In 2020, a desktop review, entitled the Capacity Review, was undertaken by the National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management. Following its completion, a report titled Response, Resilience & Recovery was completed in October 2020. The findings of this review indicated a strong capacity in terms of fire safety and operation efficacy across the fire services.

Keeping Communities Safe provides for each fire service to undertake an area risk categorisation process in respect of each of its fire station areas. The outcome of this process enables fire service management to establish a risk grading across very high risk, high risk, medium risk, low risk or very low risk categories for each fire station area. In recognition of population movements and changes in the built environment over time leading to variation in the categories of response times which are applicable, Keeping Communities Safe also sets out a requirement to monitor risk categories.

The area risk categorisation is a critical tool for ensuring fire service resources are used effectively and efficiently, and that the safety of the public is prioritised in all communities. By assessing and classifying areas based on defined risk factors, fire services can demonstrate an evidence-based approach to service delivery. Fire authorities determine the priority needs in their areas and apply resources in the most effective configuration, ensuring an appropriate and effective balance between fire prevention, fire protection and response measures. Appropriate mitigation measures and, in particular, community fire safety measures such as the smoke alarm scheme, which provides free smoke alarms to vulnerable households, including optical alarms for the deaf and hard of hearing, are funded by my Department and are being utilised to increase the safety of public dwellings.

It is intended that, later this year, there will be a second process in terms of that area risk and external validation group, which I can talk more about in the follow-up.