Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 October 2018
699. Deputy Thomas P. Broughan asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the fire stations in Dublin that benefitted from the five year fire services capital programme announced in February 2016; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43758/18]
View answerThe 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 Act 1981. My Department supports the fire authorities through setting general policy, providing a central training programme, issuing guidance on operational and other related matters and providing capital funding for priority infrastructural projects.
In February 2016, my Department announced a five-year Fire Services Capital Programme with an allocation of €40 million, based on an annual €8 million allocation, to be used for the purchase of fire appliances and specialist equipment, building or upgrading of prioritised Fire Stations, an upgrade of the Communications and Mobilisation system and improvements to Training Centres. The five-year programme proposed the construction/ refurbishment of twenty six (26) fire stations. This included sixteen (16) new builds and ten (10) upgrade/ refurbishments.
Each fire authority submits to my Department requests for funding for prioritised capital requirements. Continued investment in the fire appliance fleet has been identified as a key national priority. All requests for funding from my Department’s Fire Services Capital Programme for any fire appliances, equipment or fire station projects will have regard to local authorities’ priorities, the value for money offered by proposals and the totality of requests from fire authorities.
My Department has not funded any fire stations for Dublin Fire Brigade as part of the current capital programme. However, under the programme, funding has been announced for six new fire appliances for Dublin Fire Brigade at a cost of approximately €1.8million. Approval for 6 vehicles with 4x4 capability was also issued to Dublin Fire Brigade in May 2018. In addition to this, a fleet replacement proposal for 2018 to 2020 and a request for a turntable ladder costing approximately €800k have been received from Dublin Fire Brigade and these requests are currently under review.
The projects in the capital programme are reassessed on an annual basis and priority may be adjusted to bring forward projects offering best value-for-money and to take account of the state of readiness of the projects.
