Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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1169. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he intends to introduce a national standardised criteria to ensure all fire service authorities can deliver uniform operational capabilities across the country; if it his Department’s position that the 1999 Composite Agreement remains a valid and binding document; and if he can confirm that any new measures will not reduce the level of cover it established. [18855/25]

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 Services Acts 1981 & 2003. My Department supports fire authorities through setting general policy, providing the legislative framework, running a central training programme and issuing guidance on operational and other related matters and providing capital funding for priority infrastructural projects. The National Directorate for Fire & Emergency Management (NDFEM) manages fire service issues in my Department.

Keeping Communities Safe (KCS) was adopted as national policy in 2013. KCS is settled government policy providing for the delivery of consistent and effective fire services in Ireland while continuing to reduce the risk from fires in communities, prioritising the safety of fire personnel in their work. The determination of national policy remains a matter reserved for government, and compliance with relevant statutory obligations rests with local authorities.

KCS policy sets out the overall approach, the methods and the techniques to achieve the objective of keeping communities safe from fire, setting out national norms, standards and targets against which local authorities can benchmark their fire services.

Over the course of 2014/2015, an External Validation Group (EVG) commissioned by the Management Board of the NDFEM, visited every fire service in the country as part of a new external validation process arising from the implementation of KCS. In April 2016, the Management Board published the first EVG Report titled “Local Delivery - National Consistency”. The findings of that process are available on my Department's website at the following link:

www.gov.ie/en/publication/a23ce-external-validation-of-fire-services/

In recognition of population movements and changes in the built environment over time leading to variation in the categories of response which are applicable, KCS also sets out the requirement to monitor risk categories. In 2020 a desktop review, titled the Capacity Review, was undertaken by the NDFEM. Following its completion, a report titled Response, Resilience & Recovery, was completed in October 2020. The findings of this review indicated a strong capacity in terms of fire safety and operations across the fire services.

The Local Government Management Agency (LGMA) led engagements on behalf of the local authorities with staff representative groups.