Matt Shanahan: Urgent call to fix retained fire service crisis

Thank you very much, Chair. Minister, as I think you've heard and you've outlined yourself, we have significant problems within the retained fire service nationally. If I could just give you some stats for some of the Walford stations, just for the Dáil record. In Walford we have 32 full-time firefighters and 16 retained in the service. They handle approximately 450 calls per year. That's for a crew of 48. When we go outside of the city, into an area like Kilmack-Thomas, we have six retained firefighters who handle calls of between 120 and 150 calls per year. Done more, we have four retained firefighters doing 80 calls a year. In Port Law we have six again doing 120 and 150. What's most interesting about that, apart from fire, as you know, the fire service often deals with traffic accidents. We have the N25, which services absolutely Walford and Kilmack-Thomas area, right up to Dungarvan, which is now the worst road in the country in terms of accident. We are asking a very depleted fire service to try and attend to accident here. I just want to read a couple of notes into the Dáil record minister from someone in the fire service in County Walford, who basically pointed out the major problems that they have, most stations being only crewed to 50 per cent manning levels. They highlight that no negotiated agreement has existed since 1999 in terms of a composite pay agreement. The average retainer for a retained firefighter is €9,000 per annum, plus payments for call-outs, but, as you know, the number of call-outs has dropped for some stations since they have not been called out. The permanent service has been called out. Firefighters cannot get loans for cars and mortgages because it is only the retained amount of money that they are guided on. The average pension for a firefighter with 30 years' service, attending 50 calls per annum will be €28.67 per week. You would wonder why people would do it at all. I certainly do. The retention is a big problem, as the minister has highlighted, and the big problem is the lack of work-life balance. We now have firefighters who are being asked not to take time off because the service is so depleted. They cannot go within five miles outside the radius of their station when they are on call, and they cannot get annual leave to maintain the service. So they are very, very significant problems, and I think that I can well understand the frustration of firefighters nationally coming to Dáil Éireann today to try and present their case and to look and see is government listening to their problems. I have listened to the minister's opening statement quite with a great deal of attention this evening. He has highlighted the 2065 retained firefighters in the country and the 1200 who he says they do an invaluable service. They are essential to the communities and to the public, and there is no doubt that the retained firefighters first and foremost save lives, prevent damage, and they assist in residential and commercial property safeguards. So we know exactly what firefighters do. We know the invaluable service that they give, but what we also know is we are not paying them properly. We know we are not paying them properly because we cannot retain people in the service and we cannot attract people to the service, and 50% of those that are in it have said they wish to get out as soon as possible. So the minister has highlighted tonight that he is involved at the moment in taking on a review, and that review I think has been recently set up, I understand, and he said that there have been very significant components within that to look at the roster time for the retained firefighters, some way to improve the work-life balance of the retained crews, to attract new recruits, particularly young females, into the service, and to retain the very valuable experience within the retained fire service. These are all very laudable. Nobody could argue with any of that, but the question is how to achieve that, and the problem here with this is that firefighters, like a lot of people in the emergency services in this country, have been hearing that, you know, help is on the way, the cavalry is just over the hill, hang in there, we are listening, we are working. I would ask now, Minister, that you really, I know Minister O'Brien has left the chamber there for a while tonight, but this review can't come quick enough and it can't come hard enough, and we saw in the incidents in Creasle recently just how important the fire service is, and what would we have done up there after that explosion if there wasn't a manned fire service to present there along with the ambulance people, and how would that look? So I would ask the Minister, please, to expedite this review and pay these people properly, give them proper terms and conditions for the important, the very important work, the critical work that they do to support and to help our communities. I am all with them. Thank you.