Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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271. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of fire stations which have been closed in the State in each of the past ten years and to date in 2022; and the locations of those fire stations. [58997/22]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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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 Act, 1981. My Department supports fire authorities through setting general policy and progressing legislation, providing a central training programme, issuing guidance on operational and other related matters and providing capital funding support for equipment and priority for infrastructural projects.

The prioritisation of work and effective management of all resources is, in the first instance, a matter for the fire authority, based on its assessment of risk, needs and resources. In relation to the staffing requirements in each local authority, under the Local Government Act 2001, it is the responsibility of each Chief Executive 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 their local authority.

Over three thousand professional, competent and highly committed personnel staff the full-time and retained local Authority fire services in Ireland. Local authorities, as the funders and the employers of fire service personnel, have demonstrated their commitment to this service over the past number of years. The number of frontline fire service staff have been maintained at a consistent high level throughout the economic challenges of the past number of years, even at a time when staffing numbers were out of necessity reduced in other areas of the local authorities.

The most recent review of Fire Services in Ireland resulted in the publication of “Keeping Communities Safe - A Framework for Fire Safety in Ireland” (KCS) in 2013. This was a report on the outcome of a wide-ranging review of Fire Services in Ireland, undertaken in 2011/2012, and adopted as Government policy in early 2013.

The provision of Fire Services by local authorities is based on a risk management approach of Area Risk Categorisation which involves an analysis of the nature of the fire hazards and the incidence and extent of fires which occur, as well as the fire protection measures in place. It is a matter for the Chief Executive of individual local authorities that adequate and appropriate provision of fire services are provided, guided by the principles of Area Risk Categorisation as laid out in the "Keeping Communities Safe" policy document.

A copy of that document is available from, www.gov.ie/en/publication/72e1d-keeping-communities-safe/.

Fire authorities cooperate with each other as and when required, and on a regular basis, on a number of matters. For example, the Fire Services Act, 1981 and 2003 enables them to assist each other and provide support on a ‘mutual-assistance’ basis, and this is the expected norm for Fire Services.

The current fire fatality rate per million of population, using a three year average, equates to 4.35 deaths per million of population, this figure is a third of what it was twenty years ago when it stood at 12.9 deaths per million of population. While every death is a regrettable tragedy, this metric positions Ireland among countries with the lowest fire fatality rates.

In the period of 2012 - 2022, a single fire station has been closed at Castlerea, Co. Roscommon. The fire station was closed for operations in 2017 and formally closed in 2020. This was a decision of the local authority based on their assessment of need in line with Keeping Communities Safe. In that same 10-year period, another new fire station at Carraroe, Co. Galway was officially opened in 2016, with support from my Department. Since 2012, my Department has supported local authority fire services with grant assistance from the fire services capital programme in excess of €31 million solely to fund the replacement, refurbishment and extensions of the existing network of fire stations and training centre infrastructure.