Dáil Éireann Debate, Monday - 11 September 2023
895. Deputy John McGuinness asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he will provide a breakdown of the number of retained firefighters and staff in each fire station in counties Carlow and Kilkenny; if the numbers involved meet the standard under the Fire and Emergency Operational Plan; and if he will provide an update on the current dispute involving retained firefighters. [38103/23]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe 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 Services Acts 1981 and 2003. My Department supports fire authorities through setting general policy, providing the legislative framework, running a central training programme and issuing guidance on operational and other related matters and providing capital funding for priority infrastructural projects. Fire services issues are managed in my Department by the National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management (NDFEM).
Fire services are provided in Ireland by local authorities in accordance with the provisions of the Fire Services Acts, 1981 and 2003. Under this legislation, 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 217 fire stations nationwide, with 16 of these stations being staffed by full-time firefighters, a further 4 are mixed full-time and retained, and 197 are staffed by retained firefighters.
Under section 159 of the Local Government Act 2001, each Chief Executive is responsible for the staffing and organisational arrangements necessary for carrying out the functions of the local authority for which he or she is responsible. My Department oversees workforce planning for the local government sector, including the monitoring of overall local government sector employment levels. To this end, my Department gathers aggregate quarterly data on staff numbers in each local authority on a whole time equivalent basis. However, granular data, in terms of staff allocated to specific work areas within local authorities is not collected and consequently is not available in my Department. The relevant information regarding fire service staffing numbers would be available from the respective local authorities.
In 2013, my Department published 'Keeping Communities Safe (KCS) - A Framework for Fire Safety in Ireland'. The adoption of KCS as national policy saw national norms/standards being established for fire services in Ireland for the first time, against which local authority fire services could benchmark themselves. In respect of crewing levels, KCS establishes a national norm of 5 personnel on the first pump mobilised from a station to include a designated Incident Commander, with 4 personnel on the second or subsequent pumps mobilised from the same station. The report of the Fire Service Validation Group, ' Fire Services in Ireland, Local Delivery - National Consistency', published in 2016, noted the varied staffing arrangements in place in fire services across Ireland to achieve these standards and that fire services manage staffing levels in fire stations to achieve the national standards of fire service response.
Retained firefighters recently voted to accept the terms of a proposal agreed with Management at the Work Place Relations Commission which has brought an end to a prolonged industrial dispute. I welcome the decision of the Retained Firefighters to accept the recommendations of the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).
I have always acknowledged the challenges associated with both the recruitment and retention of retained fire personnel and I have consistently advocated for a better approach and I will continue to do so. I published a Review of Recruitment, Retention and Sustainability of the Retained Fire Service in December 2022, making recommendations to improve recruitment and retention in the retained Fire Service. These recommendations are being implemented by the NDFEM, the LGMA and all local authorities. Our firefighters are an invaluable front-line service staffed by very dedicated and selfless people, serving their communities around the clock. I will continue to support them in the work they do.
