PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 09/08/2011

From: The Irish Fire & Emergency Service Association who represent Fire Fighters, Paramedics and Rescue personnel in Ireland.

Based in: Station House, The Waterways ,Sallins ,County Kildare, Ireland .  http://www.ifesa.ie/

Time. It's a precious commodity, and it waits for no one. When lives are on the line, seconds count. Fractions of seconds count.

Few individuals in our lives better understand the importance of time than the men and women of the Irish Fire Service, highly qualified public servants, trained to handle crises affecting both people and property – often simultaneously.

But now they face another danger. The danger of short falls in funding of their service with shortfalls of up to €5 million for Dublin Fire Brigade alone. These cuts will put the lives of Fire Fighters at risk and the community they protect at risk. It is estimated that at least a €35 million shortfall now exists in the running of the fire services.

John Kidd from the Irish Fire & Emergency Service Association warns of this crisis that faces the Irish Fire Service “ As a trained Fire Fighter /Paramedic I can see the effects that shortfalls in funding on service delivery will bring to the Irish Fire Service. All I have to do is look across the water to the UK where Fire Fighter deaths from 1996 - 2002 were zero and on the implementation of so called modernisation and cuts / new work practices in 2002 saw the death toll of Fire Fighters from 2002 to 2009 go to over twenty. This is what awaits Irish Fire Fighters as Local Authorities try and implement so called improvement to the service to reflect what UK fire service do.

The spirt of The Croke Park agreement was to deliver a better public service to the citizens of Ireland. IFESA believe this can be done and look forward to improvements in service delivery in the Fire Service. Croke Park should not be used as a guise for cuts on essential Public Services. There are certain services that public servants deliver that need to be protected and financing ring fenced.”

Local councillors from the Local Authorities have voted on these budget reductions last year and they will do so again in the coming months. IFESA is asking do the councillors really understand what the implication will be for their constituency? Their community that voted them in, they are playing with the lives of their electorate. Only time will tell.

The Irish Fire & Emergency Services Association has been calling for reform of the Irish Fire Service. John Kidd says “ All this talk from government looking for ideas rings hollow for us. There are quantified measures that will save money for the Irish Fire Service that will not require a cut to service provision and will even improve the service delivery but vested interest groups in the Department of the Environment, Community & Local Government seem to be holding back these possibilities for quantified savings and the government fails to act to implement the required changes or take ownership of the problem”

The Irish Fire & Emergency Services Association has called for the establishment of a National Fire & Ambulance service in Ireland that will deliver a Fire based Emergency medical service to the citizens of Ireland. This will provide a cost effect measure for the mobilisation of life saving treatment to citizens who require it. This system will save lives with A&E departments closing down around the country Irish Fire Fighters are strategically place to respond to life threatening calls and provide life saving interventions to the citizens of Ireland

In October 2007 Eamon Gilmore of Labour supported the Nationalisation of the Irish Fire Services and called on the government to implement change.

“We now urgently need a National Fire Authority that will provide enhanced protection against fire, better training and equipment for all personnel and ensure a consistent level of service across the country.” He went on to say “But in a modern society speed of reaction is crucial to a fire alert. The time it takes for a brigade to reach a fire can literally mean the differences between life and death.”

It is ironic that it can also be said that the speed of reaction of the political establishment can also cost lives, it is this inaction that will cost lives. He alludes to this in the same speech

“However, it was not until February 2005 - three years later - that the Minister for the Environment announced a Fire Services Change Programme, which was supposed to implement the recommendations of Farrell, Grant Sparks. But of course the government refused to implement the key recommendation of that report - the proposal to establish a National Fire Authority.

This is despite a commitment given during the 2002 general election campaign by the Taoiseach's programme manager that the report would be implemented. In a letter sent on May 10th 2002 to the Secretary of the Chief Fire Officers Association, the Taoiseach's Programme Manager said:

'Fianna Fail believes that the report's recommendations constitute a balanced package of measure which must be implemented without 'cherry-picking'. Fianna Fail is committed to this course of action.............'

We have to accept the need for fundamental change and reform in the fire service. We have to accept that a structure that evolved when Ireland was a very different country, largely agricultural with relatively small numbers living in towns and cities, can no longer provide us with the level of safety and protection that we need.

We need to end a situation where as one fire officer put it, ' the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, have all of the power without any of the responsibility' They can effectively walk away from any disaster and lay the blame at the doors of the Local Authority'.”

http://www.labour.ie/press/listing/1192044006802063.html

Minster Phil Hogan (FG), Department of Environment, Community and Local Government has stated “Responsibility for the provision of fire services is a matter for the local authority.”

John Kidd “With Local Authorities budgets being slashed they are rapidly running out of money around the Country. Local Authorities cannot support the running of an emergency Fire Service. IFESA supports the call from certain County & City managers for the Nationalisation of the Irish Fire Service.

Has the government washed their hands of the problems in the Irish Fire Service? It certainly seems so.

If the deaths of Fire Fighters Brian Murray & Mark O'Shaughnessy in Bray on the 26th of September 2007 can't change or wake up the establishment to the problems what will it take?

Do we need another tragic event such as The Noyeks fire in Parnell St. Dublin in March 1972 that killed eight people, the fire in the Central Hotel, Bundoran in August 1980, which killed ten people, including five children or even another Stardust disaster that took the lives of 49 young people on St. Valentines Night 1981.

The Irish Fire & Emergency Services Association is afraid this is what it is going to take for people to take notice.

END
If you would like more information on this topic or would like to schedule an interview please contact John Kidd details below:

Contact: Irish Fire & Emergency Services Association (IFESA)

Contact: John Kidd, Chairperson, 087 6588999

Email Address: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it   OR   This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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