Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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535. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of retained female firefighters within the State, and the fire station they are stationed to, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37790/25]

Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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536. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of full-time female firefighters within the State, and the fire station they are stationed to, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37791/25]

Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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537. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the amount spent by each local authority on female specific facilities to support their female firefighters over the past three years; the amount per year, per station, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37792/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 535 to 537, inclusive, together.

Under Section 159 of the Local Government Act 2001, each Chief Executive is responsible for the staffing and organisational arrangements necessary for carrying out the functions of the local authority for which he/she is responsible. My Department oversees workforce planning for the local government sector, including the monitoring of local government sector employment levels. To this end, my Department gathers aggregate quarterly data on staff numbers in each local authority on a whole time equivalent basis.

However, granular data, in terms of the number or gender of staff employed in a particular role in each local authority or their place of work, is not collected and consequently is not available in my Department.  The relevant information would be available from each local authority.

In relation to retained fire services, while my Department does not routinely collect the requested granular level of detail on female participation, The Retained Review – A Review of Recruitment and Retention and the Future sustainability of Service Delivery, published by my Department in December 2022 noted a 1.6% figure for female participation in retained fire services. A recent survey of fire services in May 2025 noted a composite figure of 3% female participation across retained fire services, essentially a doubling of female participation in the interim.

I recently launched a multi-media national campaign to assist local authorities in the on-going recruitment of retained firefighters. The recruitment campaign aims to educate people on the role of the retained fire service and aims to attract a broad range of recruits to reflect the diverse communities they serve.

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. 

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.

Infrastructural improvements are guided by the principle of providing dignified facilities for all Fire service personnel. The National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management (NDFEM) in my Department is currently revising planning and design guidelines for fire station development projects with guidance regarding the provision of sanitary and washing facilities that they be provided in non-gender specific floor to ceiling individual units.

The NDFEM is actively working with the Women in the Fire Services Network (WFSN) to address perceived barriers for the effective participation of females in fire services. These works are at a nascent stage of development and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion issues are now a standing agenda item for the quarterly meetings of the NDFEM Management Board.

The table below details the funding received by local authorities over the last three years for improvements to priority fire service infrastructure such as fire stations and Learning & Development centres, with an approximate total of €30.9 million in funding for the period 2022 to date in 2025.

My Department will be identifying new priority fire service infrastructural projects for the period 2026 – 2030 in the coming months. My Department will work closely with each fire authority to progress identified infrastructural projects, within the context of the totality of requests from fire authorities countrywide for capital funding.

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.