Maria McCormack (Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister of State. I really appreciate him coming in. This is really an urgent matter. I am going to explain to him a little bit about the fire station in Rathdowney and a little bit about the history of it and where it is at now so he can understand how urgent this situation is. Rathdowney fire station is one of the oldest fire stations in the country. It was built in 1954, so that is about 70 years ago now. The site for a new modern station was purchased in 2009, yet 16 years later, it is still idle, undeveloped, unused and gathering dust. Meanwhile, the firefighters of Rathdowney continue to operate out of a building that is completely unfit for purpose. I have been to this building, and it is completely unfit for purpose. The current situation was designed for a single jeep and a small mobile pump, but today it houses three vehicles, including two large fire tenders. The building is cramped, outdated and located on a narrow street that makes it extremely difficult for crews to respond quickly to calls. It literally takes skill and precision just to manoeuvre the engine in and out of the building, something no firefighter should have to contend with when every second counts in an emergency. The situation inside the station is equally unacceptable. The changing area is 3 sq. m. We have four female firefighters there and six men, and we have two vacancies as well. The Minister of State can imagine 3 sq. m, with one shower and one changing area. This is just totally unacceptable in 2025 for dignity and respect for the women in the station, given we have a new site purchased since 2009 sitting there waiting to be refurbished. In this day and age, it is just not acceptable. The station does not even have car parking spaces, so people have to go there and park on double yellow lines, if they can get parking. These people are supposed to be responding to emergencies, when they can be delayed because they cannot park their cars to literally get out the fire trucks to get on the way.

Rathdowney serves a vast rural area covering south Laois and responding into parts of counties Offaly, Tipperary and Kilkenny. The service they provide is critical to rural safety and community resilience. Laois County Council has repeatedly made this project its number one priority for services, submitting applications every year. It submitted an application last year and again it was refused. We know Stradbally is getting refurbished at the minute, but every time they submit an application for Rathdowney, it is just pushed back. Today, I just want to get answers. It is shovel ready. It is ready to go. I visited the site, the warehouse that is with the site and the very small fire station these firefighters are working out of, so I just want to know when this long-promised commitment is going to be delivered, and why, 16 years after a site was purchased, our firefighters are still working out of a building that is no longer safe. It is not as if we do not have a site or funds for the site. It is metres up the road from the other fire station. Laois County Council and the people of Rathdowney deserve clarity and commitment. I ask that the Minister of State's Department prioritises the Rathdowney fire station project as a matter of urgency within the fire services capital programme and that construction will finally begin. These firefighters protect our communities, and it is time now that we protect the facilities that they deserve.

John Cummins (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Senator very much for raising this important matter. At the outset, I acknowledge the fantastic work that is done by fire service personnel across this country day in, day out. When there are emergencies that most people run away from, they run towards them.I put on record my thanks to them for their fantastic work. Obviously, ensuring firefighters have the appropriate facilities is a priority of Government.

I will add a few pieces later but, to give context to my response, 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 the provision of fire station premises, is a statutory function of individual local authorities under the Fire Services Acts 1981 and 2003. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage supports the fire authorities through setting general policy, providing a central training programme, issuing guidance on operational and other related matters and providing capital funding for equipment and priority infrastructural projects. Project consideration stages from a Department perspective include: submission of preliminary and detailed appraisals; submission of a design brief; selection of a site; application of approval in principle; appointment of design consultants; submission of a preliminary design planning application; submission of a preliminary cost plan; detailed design and cost plans; and a tender process. As the Senator will appreciate, there are a significant number of stages to progressing a project.

In December 2020, the then Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, announced the fire service capital programme for the period 2021 to 2025, with a funding allocation of €61 million. Following an extensive engagement with fire authorities, a number of proposals for station works were received. The proposals were then evaluated and prioritised on a basis of area risk categorisation of the fire station, which includes population, fire risk and so on, established health and safety needs, the state of the development of the project, value for money offered by the proposal and the totality of requests from all local authorities.

The Senator said in her initial comments that Laois County Council has consistently put the Rathdowney fire station forward as its number one project but the information I have to hand here is that, at that time, Laois County Council put forward the Stradbally fire station as its number one priority, with the replacement of the Rathdowney fire station as its second priority. While the fire station in Stradbally was not initially included in the Department's fire service capital programme for 2021 to 2025, it subsequently was included following a reappraisal. Since then, approval in principle for a new fire station at Stradbally was conveyed to the council in November 2022. The council was approved to tender for design consultants for the project in March 2023 and, in September of this year, the council was approved to invite tenders for the construction phase of the Stradbally fire station project. My Department officials are working with Laois County Council to progress that fire station in Stradbally and I understand the council's intention is to publish that tender request before the end of the year.

Regarding Rathdowney, I will go into further details in my follow-up comments but my understanding is Laois County Council has indicated this is now its number one priority to progress and that, in December of last year, it submitted an updated preliminary appraisal for the proposed new fire station at Rathdowney, noting several issues with the existing station, some of which the Senator identified in her opening comments.

Maria McCormack (Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister of State and appreciate his in-depth response. Rathdowney would have been the number one priority and then things changed and Stradbally became our priority. Stradbally is very much a done deal now, as the Minister of State said, with approvals having been granted in 2022 and 2023. We are very much waiting for that process to happen. In the meantime, however, Rathdowney has remained a health and safety risk for the workers there and for the women in the station, which has one changing area of 3 sq. m for the four women and the men. As one can imagine, they are emergency services and there is not a lot of time when they are getting changed and going out.

I ask the Minister of State to put extra consideration into the urgency of this matter. I understand all the processes he has talked about there - I do not understand all the different processes - but he might look at it a little bit further to see how we can push things along with regard to the 2026-30 plan and the proposal Laois County Council submitted last year. As far as the council is concerned, it is not sure there is going to be funding there in the next cycle.I would love to see a commitment that these firefighters in Rathdowney are not going to be left behind this time round.

John Cummins (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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The Senator has rightly pointed out the limitations of the existing facility in Rathdowney, such as its poor layout and the additional requirements from a welfare perspective for staff given the additional crewing elements. Laois County Council has now indicated this is its priority one project for the capital programme that will run from 2026 to 2030. It has the site the Senator identified, which will be a better site to allow for tenders to navigate the streets. I can assure the Senator my officials will work with Laois County Council to progress its identified priority infrastructural projects within the context of the totality of the budget that will be available for the 2026 to 2030 programme. We are working on that within the Department and what the capital envelope will be for that programme.