Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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76. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the changes being made to the mobilisation of fire engines in County Meath; the performance indicator differences between the old system and the new system; the impact on the investment and resources with regard to persons and vehicles of the Meath fire brigade over the next five years in each of the fire stations; the impact on the salary for fire persons in County Meath over the next five years; his plans for a full-time fire service in Navan; if the Meath fire service will be brought up to the same level of pump service as the Dublin fire service; the number of calls being received by the eastern regional fire control in Tara Street pertaining to County Meath; the number of calls where fire engines are not mobilised for each of the past five years; and the fire service mobilisation procedure for road traffic collisions in County Meath. [30034/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Fire services are provided by local authorities in accordance with the provisions of the Fire Services Acts 1981 and 2003. Under section 10 of the 1981 Act, a fire authority, in this case Meath County Council, is required to make provision for the delivery of fire services in its functional area, including the assessment of fire cover needs and the provision of premises. In general, I have no role in relation to the detailed operational matters, such as local mobilisation procedures and staffing arrangements, referred to in the question and queries on these should be referred to the local authority concerned.

In relation to Fire Service mobilisation, my Department has provided information and analysis to assist individual fire services in improving response times by giving effect to the principle of “mobilising the nearest available response”. While this principle applies across most of the country already, the evidence suggests that up to 5% of the population would benefit from a re-alignment of the sequence of mobilisation of fire service resources from fire stations using the “nearest available response” rather than traditional administrative or “station ground” boundaries. Any query in relation to the application of the principle of “nearest available response” in Meath is a matter for Meath County Council.

In relation to the staffing requirements in each local authority, it is the responsibility of each Chief Executive, under the Local Government Act 2001, to employ such staff and to make such staffing, funding, recruitment and organisational arrangements as may be deemed necessary for the purposes of carrying out the functions of the local authorities.

My Department operated a delegated sanction from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform for implementation of the moratorium on recruitment in relation to local authorities. The Department examined all staffing sanction requests on a case by case basis having due regard to the continued delivery of key services in the context of staffing and budgetary constraints. In considering sanction requests, public safety, maintaining key front line services and economic considerations we re given precedence. Fire-fighter numbers in Ireland, including in Meath, were maintained at a constant level from the introduction of the moratorium in 2009 until its removal in December 2015. Since the lifting of the moratorium, my Department has received no application for additional posts in the Meath Fire Service. As staff in Fire Service are public servants, their remuneration and salaries are governed by relevant national pay arrangements including the Lansdowne Road Agreement, which runs to 2018.

As part of a 2016–2020 capital investment programme in fire service infrastructure, some projects in Meath are scheduled to receive support from my Department. This investment will help maintain a quality infrastructure and ensure that fire stations, the fire service appliance fleet and equipment and mobilisation and communications facilities in Meath are in line with national norms.

Fire Service statistics, including those relating to call-outs, are available on my Department’s website at the following link:

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Details relating specifically to call-outs in County Meath for the period 2011 - 2015 are set out in Table 1.

Table 1

Details ofMeathFire Service Call-outs 2011 - 2015