Written answers

Tuesday, 31 May 2016

Department of Environment, Community and Local Government

Fire Service

Photo of John BradyJohn Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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402. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if discussions have taken place between the fire service in County Wicklow and Dublin in relation to the boundaries for the fire service between the two areas; and if so, if an agreement has been reached to allow Wicklow fire service to cover the Old Connaught Avenue area in County Dublin, as the closest fire station to the area is in the Wicklow fire service area. [13532/16]

Photo of Simon CoveneySimon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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As confirmed in “Keeping Communities Safe – A Framework for Fire Safety in Ireland”, it is the national policy that the nearest available resource (in terms of speed of arrival) should be deployed to emergency incidents, irrespective of administrative boundaries. This policy is supported by the Risk-Based Approach (RBA) to managing emergency service provision. My Department, in conjunction with the Contracting Authorities of the three Regional Communications Centres, worked to develop a national model for a Risk-Based Approach to fire cover in all fire authorities. Initial RBA reports, which enabled and supported the first Area Risk Categorisation process undertaken by each fire service in 2013/14, were issued to each fire authority in July 2012.

A second batch of RBA reports, using an expanded data-set, was generated in 2015. These model the predicted order of attendance of primary fire service resources to every geographical area, based on the travel time from fire stations to those individual areas. The results were based on a combination of actual turnout times of the fire stations, using three years of cumulative response data, together with the predicted travel times. These provide an evidence base to support fire authorities in reviewing and redefining the pre-determined attendances (PDAs) in their functional areas and to give effect to the principle of mobilising the “nearest available resource”.

The RBA II project was recently submitted to the newly established Fire Services National Oversight and Implementation Group (FSNOIG) for consultation between management and staff representatives, following which a jointly agreed implementation process should issue.

In the particular case referred to in the Question, the responsibility for the provision of fire services rests with the relevant fire authorities who are, Wicklow County Council and Dublin City Council; the latter provides fire services for the four Dublin local authorities, through Dublin Fire Brigade. I expect that these authorities will jointly review service provision at the interface between their fire authorities in accordance with national policy when the FSNOIG consultation process is complete.

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