Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 18 May 2021
400. Deputy Pauline Tully asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the fees and expenses paid to each member of the management board of the National Directorate For Fire and Emergency Management in 2019 and 2020, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26522/21]
View answerThe National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management (NDFEM) was established within my Department in 2009 to provide central direction and leadership for fire and emergency management services, to develop national policies and national standards and to support and oversee their implementation at local level.
It is widely recognised that the NDFEM Management Board has been a very successful model of collaboration between central and local government not just for its work in coordinating the response to severe weather and flooding, but also in relation to Traveller Fire Safety after the Carrickmines tragedy and likewise in leading our approach to evaluating safety in tall buildings after the Grenfell Tower fire in London. Its approach to ‘External Validation’ – meeting and reviewing each of our 27 fire services and reporting on their status - is both timely and reassuring. The most recent exercise in 2020 to review the impact of Covid on fire services was undertaken at a difficult time and was particularly welcome.
The NDFEM’s Management Board also leads the community fire safety approach which has been so successful in driving down our fire fatality rates. Ireland is in the league of most fire safe countries with a typical rate of approximately four fire fatalities per million of population, a third of what it was a decade ago.
In the years cited in the attached question, the Management Board has had a membership of 13 persons, made up as follows:
- An Independent Chairperson
- The head of the relevant division within my Department
- The National Director of Fire and Emergency Management in my Department
- A representative of the Chief Fire Officers (CFOs) Association
- Representatives from the City and County Management Association
- An international expert
- A representative from the Department of Defence
- A representative from Insurance Ireland
The Chairperson is the only member of the Management Board who is paid a fee by the Department. This fee, set out in the Table below, is the national rate for chairing of Category IV Boards. Also reflected in the Table are expenses recouped to the Chief Fire Officer representative and International Expert in connection with their attendance at Board meetings.
|
|
2019 |
2020 |
|
Chair |
|
|
|
Fee |
€9,450 |
€9,450 |
|
International Expert |
|
|
|
Expenses |
€369.76 |
€92.44 |
|
CFOs Association Representative |
|
|
|
Expenses |
€1,142.09* |
€158.74 |
It should be noted that the International expert, who is a member of the Board, carries out a range of work for the NDFEM, leading significant projects including the C Trí Fire Services Mobilisation and Communications Project and ensuring appropriate linkage across NDFEM work in the Information and Communication Technology, fire service operations and fire safety areas. In 2020, he was commissioned to lead the Management Board's external validation/ quality assurance process into the impact of Covid on fire services. This study was undertaken over the summer of 2020 was reported upon in the 'Response, Resilience and Recovery' Report published in October 2020. The amounts paid by my Department to the international expert for this work in the period 2019 was €52,340.55 and in 2020 was €64,470.82. Also, in addition to expenses listed in the table above for attending Board meetings of the NDFEM, the Chief Fire Officer representative attended a range of other NDFEM meetings and was recouped €3,888.35* in 2019 and €569.99 in 2020 for attending those meetings.
*This total also includes expenses incurred 2018 but paid in 2019.
