Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 20 November 2018
646. Deputy Dara Calleary asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government his plans for the reorganisation of the management and organisation of the fire service at national, regional and local level; the timeline for the introduction of changes; the way in which his planned structures will differ from those in place; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47774/18]
View answerAs Minister with policy and legislative responsibility for fire safety and the provision of fire services by local authorities, my primary concern, as set out in the Fire Services Acts 1981 and 2003, is that local authority provided fire services are meeting their statutory obligations in respect of provision of fire services and fire safety.
Fire services are provided in Ireland by local authorities in accordance with the provisions of the Fire Services Acts, 1981 and 2003. At the moment there are 31 fire authorities which provide fire prevention and fire protection services for communities through 27 service delivery structures. Local authority fire services are delivered by approximately 3,300 local authority staff engaged at 218 fire stations nationwide, with local authorities expending approximately €280m per annum on their fire services.
The most recent review of fire services in Ireland resulted in the publication of “Keeping Communities Safe - A Framework for Fire Safety in Ireland” (KCS) in 2013. This was the report on the outcome of a wide-ranging review of fire services in Ireland which was undertaken in 2011/2012, and was endorsed as national policy in early 2013. It concluded that local authorities were best positioned to continue to provide fire services in Ireland.
At national level, a National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management was created within my Department in 2009 to give central direction and leadership for the fire and emergency management services. The 2009 arrangements put in place a management structure at central government level with a clear mandate and visibility to develop national policy and to drive consistent achievement of quality fire services by local authorities, while not interfering with existing local political accountability for front-line service delivery. Under the system, responsibility for the day-to-day operation of fire services remains with the local authorities. However, the National Directorate’s mandate includes developing national policies and national standards, and supporting and overseeing their implementation at local level.
The KCS policy document sets out the overall approach, the methods and the techniques to achieve the objective of keeping communities safe from fire and, for the first time, set out national norms, standards and targets against which local authorities can benchmark their fire services.
Over the course of 2014/2015, the National Directorate’s Management Board's External Validation Group (EVG) visited every fire service in the country as part of a new external validation process arising from implementation of KCS. In April 2016, the Management Board published the first EVG Report titled “Local Delivery - National Consistency”. The report concluded, inter alia, that:
- Fire Services are applying and refining internationally-recognised risk management approaches to reduce the fire risk and the annual toll of life and property loss caused by fire.
- Local authorities are matching the assessed fire risk in their individual fire station areas with services based on both full-time and retained fire service models, with a comprehensive support infrastructure, and applying a range of appropriate fire prevention and fire protection approaches.
- Local authorities have prioritised and maintained the financial and personnel resources in their fire services at times when they were implementing significant reductions in all other areas.
- Local authorities have benchmarked their fire services against national standards and national norms, and a strong degree of consistency, linked to area risk categorisation, now exists in fire service provision; all local authorities are using, or are working towards, national norms as minimum standards.
A copy of this report is available on my Department's website at the following link: www.housing.gov.ie/local-government/fire-and-emergency-management/fire-services-ireland-local-delivery-national.
It is widely recognised that the National Directorate structure has been very effective in leading the development of emergency management in Ireland as well as fire services. The National Directorate was central to the work which underpinned the successful response to severe weather emergencies including Ex-Hurricane Ophelia in October 2017 and Storm Emma earlier this year.
Following the publication of the “Fire Safety Task Force” Report in May 2018, which was convened at my request by the National Directorate, I have asked the Management Board of the National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management to oversee the implementation of the recommendations of Task Force Report.
I have no additional plans for the reorganisation of the fire service at national, regional and local level at this time, as the evidence suggests that current arrangements, as outlined, are working effectively to meet the challenges involved in trying to protect communities from fire and other emergencies.
