I propose to take Questions Nos. 1166 and 1167 together.
The 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 Acts 1981 and 2003. My Department supports fire authorities through general policy setting and preparing legislation, providing a central training programme, issuing guidance on operational and other related matters and providing capital funding for priority infrastructural projects.
The Fire Service in Ireland is fortunate to have available to it, in the full-time and retained cadres of staff at all levels, a large number of professional, competent and highly committed personnel. Local authorities are the employers of fire service personnel, and the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA) engages with appropriate staffing representative bodies in relation to overall terms of employment. Fire services issues are managed in my Department through its National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management.
My Department is not aware of the high churn of firefighters from the Fire Service described. Indeed in large urban areas where there is a full-time service, there remains a high level of interest in the Service, as indicated by the very high number of responses to recruitment campaigns, the most recent of which was held late last year in Dublin. I understand however, that the situation outside these areas, with full-time services, can vary. In this regard, local authorities and the LGMA continuously monitor the issue of recruitment and retention and work on developing strategies to address such issues, involving and briefing the NDFEM as appropriate.
Work is ongoing in collating data from around the regions, however, provisional statistics would suggest that for the first quarter of 2020 the number of calls received nationally was similar to the previous 3-year rolling average. There is expected to be regional variations and some areas may have seen reductions in calls received. It is also likely that during the Covid-19 restrictions the number of calls will fall in line with public activity.
