Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 209: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the sectors from within the public service that Dublin City Council intends to fill fire-fighter vacancies through redeployment; and the oversight measures that he has put in place to ensure that such redeployments will not compromise the heath and safety of citizens in need of the Dublin fire brigade service. [8689/12]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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The provision of fire services in local authority areas, including the establishment and maintenance of fire brigades, the assessment of fire cover needs and the provision of premises is a statutory function of individual fire authorities under the provisions of the Fire Services Act 1981. My Department supports fire authorities through setting of general policy, training support and issue of guidance on operational and other related matters, and the provision of capital funding.

Under section 159 of the Local Government Act 2001, each county and city manager is responsible for the staffing and organisational arrangements necessary for carrying out the functions of the local authority for which he or she is responsible. Accordingly, the deployment of fire brigade staff in Dublin is a matter in the first instance for Dublin City Council. However, I understand that Dublin City Council, under the Public Service Agreement 2010-2014 (Croke Park Agreement), intend to replace fire-fighters who currently work in the Regional Communications Centre (RCC) in Townsend St. with dedicated control room operators, sourced from within the four Dublin Local Authorities, so that the fire-fighters can fill vital front-line fire service roles for which they are especially trained. Such staff will be trained in accordance with a national syllabus for the role and in nationally agreed procedures which have proved effective over the years at similar Regional Communications Centres in Limerick and Castlebar. On the general issue of fire service staffing, my Department considers all staffing sanction requests on a case by case basis, having due regard to Public Service numbers policy and the continued delivery of key services.