John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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98. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the establishment numbers for the retained fire service; and the number of existing number across all fire authorities in the State. [38395/20]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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As previously indicated to the Deputy in response to PQ 17303/20 on July 21st last, my Department does not routinely collect the data in the format requested.

The position is that 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 fire authorities under the Fire Services Acts, 1981 and 2003. My Department 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.

Fire services are provided in Ireland by local authorities in accordance with the provisions of the Fire Services Acts, 1981 and 2003. At the moment there are 31 fire authorities which provide fire prevention and fire protection services for communities through 27 service delivery structures. Local authority fire services are delivered by approximately 3,300 local authority staff engaged at 218 fire stations nationwide, with 16 of these stations being full-time stations, a further 4 are mixed full-time and retained, and 198 retained stations.

My Department does not routinely collect the data in the format requested by the Deputy. However, as part of on a broader review exercise currently in progress a breakdown, based on data supplied by local authorities, of the number of firefighters in each fire authority as at July 2020 is set out in the table below.