Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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139. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of requests his Department received from Tipperary County Council seeking funding to purchase additional fire appliances and or emergency fire-fighting equipment for Tipperary Fire Service in the years of 2024 and to date in 2025; and of the number of requests received, the number that were approved or pending, in tabular form. [3768/25]

James Browne (Wexford, 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 Service Acts, 1981 and 2003.

My Department supports fire authorities by establishing policy, setting national standards for fire safety and fire service provision, providing a central training programme, issuing guidance on operational and other related matters and providing capital funding for priority infrastructural projects such as improvements to the network of fire stations and fire service training centres and the procurement of essential frontline fire appliances, ancillary vehicles and equipment.

In December 2020, Minister Darragh O'Brien announced the Fire Services Capital Programme for the period 2021-2025, with a funding allocation of €61m. Following extensive engagement with fire authorities, a number of proposals for station works etc. were received. The proposals were evaluated and prioritised on the basis of the:

• Area Risk Categorisation of the fire station (population, fire risks, etc.);
• established Health and Safety needs;
• state of development of the project;
• value for money offered by the proposal; and
• the totality of requests from all authorities.

Any proposal received by my Department requesting further support from the Fire Services capital programme is considered with regard to national priorities and the totality of requests from fire authorities countrywide.

In 2024 Tipperary County Council made 8 applications for capital funding of fire service equipment/vehicles, 7 of which have been approved, receiving approval for funding in excess of €0.5 million. One application remains under consideration for capital funding.

To date in 2025 Tipperary County Council have made 1 application for capital funding of fire service equipment/vehicles, which currently remains under consideration for grant approval.

It should be noted that under the 2023 – 2025 OGP joint procurement framework, Tipperary County Council have also been allocated two new Class B fire appliances fully funded from the fire services capital programme for approximately €1.1 million with an expected delivery date in Q3 2025.