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 local authorities under the Fire Services Act, 1981. My Department supports fire authorities through setting general policy, providing a central training programme, issuing guidance on operational and other related matters and providing capital funding support for equipment and priority infrastructural projects. Fire services issues are managed in my Department by the National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management (NDFEM).

Fire services are provided in Ireland by local authorities in accordance with the provisions of the Fire Services Acts, 1981 and 2003. Under this legislation, 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 217 fire stations nationwide, with 16 of these stations being staffed by full-time firefighters, a further 4 are mixed full-time and retained, and 197 are staffed by retained firefighters.

In 2013, my Department published 'Keeping Communities Safe (KCS) - A Framework for Fire Safety in Ireland'. That document can be viewed at www.gov.ie/pdf/?file=//assets.gov.ie/111369/329aa66f-5ed3-4541-be29-9119758e5c99.pdf#page=null . The adoption of KCS as national policy saw national norms/standards being established for fire services in Ireland for the first time, against which local authority fire services could benchmark themselves.

The provision of fire services by local authorities is based on a statutory risk management approach, 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.

The arrangements for mobilising a response to a 999/112 call from the public for fire service assistance are handled at three Regional Communications Centres, where call-takers establish the location and nature of the emergency and then mobilise the nearest geographical resource to the location of the incident based on projected speed of arrival to the scene.

There has been a welcome downward trend in the incidence of fire. The current fire fatality rate, using a three year average, equates to 4.5 deaths per million of population. This figure is approximately 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, that level of fire fatalities positions Ireland among countries with lower fire fatality rates.

The information requested in regard to average wait times of fire service response is available via the Local Authority Performance Indicator Report for 2022, NOAC Report no. 58, available on www.noac.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/20231009-NOAC-PI-Report-2022-FINAL.pdf, which details the service mobilisation for each local authority.