Earlier I was discussing the timing of the Bill and when its provisions will be brought into force. I dealt with the history of this legislation which arose from the report of a review of the fire services published in 1975. That report was acted upon by the administration at that time and later by Fianna Fáil between 1977 and 1981. It was a part of a commitment by Fianna Fáil on the introduction of the terms of reference of the Stardust Tribunal in February. There was a commitment then to introduce this legislation in April and that was carried out. There was a commitment with regard to the publication of the amended draft building regulations within six weeks of the setting up of the Stardust Tribunal and that was carried out. There was also a commitment with regard to the setting up of a task force to examine and improve fire prevention activities and assist owners of property in regard to fire prevention, particularly owners of buildings catering for the general public in large numbers. That was also carried out. The Bill was part of the commitment by the Government at the time of the setting up of the Stardust Tribunal. The Second Stage of it was discussed in May and I welcome this opportunity to debate the amendments put down today by the Minister for the Environment. Most of those amendments are of a technical nature but I will be discussing at greater length amendment No. 12 to section 16 which deals with the fire services council, the inquires that are suggested and the operation of the investigations of fires.
I should like to ask the Minister for a commitment that when the Bill passes through the Houses of the Oireachtas and is signed by the President it will be brought into operation. It must be remembered that to bring the various provisions of the Bill into operation will cost a considerable amount of money. In 1977 when the National Coalition introduced their last budget the allocation for the fire services was £694,000 and in this year's Estimate Fianna Fáil provided £2.5 million for those services. That represents a considerable increase. In the period between the general election of 1977 and the change of Government earlier this year 14 new fire stations were constructed and 11 further projects are under construction. A total of 44 new fire appliances were also provided throughout the country. It was a question of continuous progress.
I want to ask the Minister for the Environment to give the House a guarantee that the work undertaken, work envisaged and the expansion of the fire services envisaged within the terms of this Bill — which involves training, fire prevention and all other aspects — will place him in a position to secure from his colleague, the Minister for Finance, and his other colleagues in the Cabinet the necessary finance with which to implement the provisions of the Bill. There is a level of expectation amongst the general public that the fire services generally are to be improved, through reorganisation, as envisaged under the provisions of this Bill. There is expectation of a dramatic improvement. For the sake of the House and the country perhaps the Minister would see his way to giving this guarantee. I can assure him that on this side of the House we will be keeping a very close eye on progress and will be ensuring by means of all the facilities at our disposal, that the provisions of this Bill are implemented once passed. It would be a tragedy were this Bill merely passed and left on the statute book, if the necessary finance were not made available.
The Minister will recall that in April last we introduced a system of subsidisation of local authorities to assist them in the purchase of extra equipment, a 50 per cent subsidisation of the interest rates involved in repayments on equipment, which was of enormous assistance to them. The financial commitments involved in that decision were considerable.
Great work has been done by the fire services throughout the country. This Bill, together with the other measures about which I have spoken, provides an opportunity for what might be described as a great leap forward in the development of our fire services and, in particular, in the development of their fire prevention element. We have all become aware of the absolute necessity for an improvement in the fire prevention element of the fire-fighting tasks. Fire prevention constitutes a key element of this Bill. In the next section there is an amendment in the name of the Minister which talks about "fire hydrant". All of these things are to do with fire prevention. This will necessitate considerable resources both of manpower and finance at Government level.
It will require considerable commitment to financing on the part of the Government with which to implement the fire training facilities of this Bill. It is essential that we get this commitment today during the discussion on Committee Stage, or at least some inkling as to the level of financial commitment of this Government in 1982 when this Bill has been passed.