Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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2177. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government his plans to meet with the Minister for Health to discuss a memorandum of understanding between the Health Service Executive and local authorities in addition to the financial resources that would be required to implement these supports across the State in respect of utilising the services of firefighters, employed full time or on a part time retainer in their capacity as trained emergency first responders as a back up to the ambulance service. [27214/17]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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Responsibility for the provision of emergency medical services, including pre-hospital emergency care, rests with the Health Service Executive (HSE) which operates the National Ambulance Service (NAS) and emergency departments in hospitals in accordance with health sector legislation and national policy. The HSE operates under the remit of my colleague, the Minster for Health.

As Minister with policy and legislative responsibility for fire safety and the provision of fire services by local authorities, my primarily concern is that local authority-provided fire services are meeting their statutory obligations in respect of the provision of fire services and fire safety. These responsibilities include the important activity of community and other fire safety initiatives as well as response to 999/112 calls. In 2013, the policy document Keeping Communities Safe was published and, for the first time, set out standards and norms against which local authorities can benchmark their fire services. In April 2016, the first report of the External Validation Group, titled Local Delivery – National Consistency, was published. This report assessed the review process undertaken in each of the 27 local authority fire services, and provided an appraisal of the current state of our local authority fire services.

In general, there is a high degree of collaboration and co-ordination of emergency activity among the Principal Emergency Services.  As well as being able to call on Community First Responders, the NAS is aware that many fire services are equipped with automatic external defibrillators and have trained their fire-fighters in Cardiac First Responder and Emergency First Responder to Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council standards. Fire services are so equipped and trained in the first instance for ensuring the health and safety of their own staff, but can use their skills and equipment where they encounter casualties at emergency incidents.

Fire services generally respond to calls for assistance from external bodies in accordance with protocols operated within the three fire services Regional Communications Centres. In some circumstances, the HSE’s NAS calls for assistance from fire services in certain situations or for responding to certain categories of 999/112 emergency calls.  However, there is no national framework or agreement for cross-mobilisation between the Principal Emergency Services.

The feasibility of fire services being commissioned by the HSE to provide a response in support of the NAS for ECHO - immediately life-threatening cardiac or respiratory arrest - emergency calls is currently being discussed by a Joint Working Committee of the Fire Services National Oversight & Implementation Group (FSNOIG), which consists of fire service management and staff representatives, with a working brief to consider “the possibility and development of a proposal for fire services collaboration with the National Ambulance Service in responding to appropriate Clinical Status 1 999 emergency Calls”. 

Any proposal emerging from these discussions will be considered in the first instance by the Management Board of the National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management and could be used as the basis for discussions with the Health sector on this matter, if appropriate, including engagement at Ministerial level, if necessary.  

Experience has shown that any proposal for formalising such assistance needs to be subject to appropriate governance and cost reimbursement arrangements and to be set in the context of a service agreement which will not impact on or adversely affect fire services' primary roles. It is important in such circumstances to ensure that local authority and fire services resources are not diverted from their statutory fire service and fire safety responsibilities where they are providing assistance for another public body. The potential impact on the current HSE's Community First Responders schemes would also have to be assessed by that sector.