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Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 18 Nov 1981

Vol. 330 No. 13

Fire Services Bill, 1981: Committee Stage.

Question proposed: "That section 1 stand part of the Bill".

Before discussing the various sections I want to say that it is my intention and the intention of those on this side of the House to co-operate fully in the passage of this measure as quickly as possible. The House will recall that this legislation was introduced by the previous Government and that the Second Stage of the debate on the Bill was held last May prior to the general election. The amendments we have before us from the Government are mainly drafting amendments, with the exception of amendment No. 12, which deals with section 16, and we will discuss that at greater length when we get to it. I assure the Minister of the co-operation of Deputies on this side of the House.

This legislation arose from the report of the Fire Services Committee, 1975, which was considered and various action was taken by the previous Coalition Government in 1977 and by the Fianna Fáil Government from 1977 to 1981. Various work was carried out as a result of this report. In the introduction to the terms of reference for the tribunal which was set up last February, arising from the tragedy at the Stardust nightclub, I, as Minister for the Environment, made a series of commitments with regard to measures to be taken to improve fire services generally. These commitments were: the introduction of the Fire Services Bill, which we have before us; the setting up of a fire task force in co-operation with the Fire Prevention Council and making available to that task force adequate and substantial funds to carry out their work. The Fire Services Bill was introduced in April and had its Second Stage debate in May. The publication of the building regulations, with the amendments, was carried out within six weeks of the setting up of the Stardust Tribunal and then, in fully amended form, were published in April. The fire task force has been operating very effectively and I would like to take this opportunity of praising them and putting on record my appreciation for the work put in by the chairman, Mr. Geoffrey Cronin, the members of the task force and the co-operation they have received from all sections of the community. I know the work they were undertaking when I was Minister and, from reading media reports since, they have been carrying on that work in an excellent manner. That is something for which we should be very grateful.

The other measure that was introduced by the previous administration for the improvement of the fire service generally was the interest subsidy paid to local authorities to encourage them to purchase fire tenders and equipment generally. That was a major boost to the efforts of local authorities to improve their fire fighting and fire prevention capacity.

I should like to ask the Minister his intentions with regard to bringing the Bill into operation. The Minister for Finance spoke yesterday about revisions and reviews for decentralisation and other issues. There is a cutback in funds and it would be wrong for this House to pass legislation such as the Fire Services Bill, have it passed by the Seanad, signed into law by the President, and raise expectations within the community generally about action to improve fire fighting services if we have no money to implement these measures. What is the situation with regard to the availability of the necessary funds? Will the Bill be brought into operation immediately it is passed by both Houses of the Oireachtas and signed by the President?

I should like to remind the House of the commitments with regard to expenditure on the fire service by various administrations. The previous Coalition Government in their last year in office had £694,000 in their budget for fire services. This was immediately increased in the first Fianna Fáil budget and in the 1981 Fianna Fáil budget it increased to £2.5 million. During that period we were involved in the construction of 14 new fire stations and there were plans for 11 more. Forty-four new appliances were purchased for the fire service.

One of the key elements of this legislation is the whole area of fire prevention, the carrying out of investigations of buildings and the investigations of such things as have been included here by the Minister with amendment No. 1, the examination and positioning of hydrants. This all involves staffing. Fire training involves staffing. We are talking of considerable expenditure. It will be necessary for the Minister for the Environment to have the assurance of the Minister for Finance that funds will be available to put this Bill into operation because people expect that this legislation will remove the present inadequacies in the operation and organisation of our fire services. The financial implications of the Bill are considerable. It will need tremendous effort on behalf of the Minister for the Environment to get the necessary funding from the Minister for Finance. I assure the Minister for the Environment, that we will be following the publication of the Book of Estimates very carefully in regard to the funds being made available for the fire services.

Progress reported; Committee to sit again.
Sitting suspended at 1.30 p.m. and resumed at 2.30 p.m.
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