No new Dublin firemen since 1985 despite population boom

There have been no additional firemen or fire prevention officers and only one ambulance added to the Dublin Fire Brigade (DFB) since 1985, despite the fact that the county's population has increased by 25 per cent since then. In 1985 there were 850 firemen; six fire prevention officers and ten ambulances in the DFB. In 2005 there are 850 firemen; six prevention officers and 11 ambulances. The additional ambulance went to the Blanchardstown fire station when it was opened.

Dublin City Council (DCC) has responsibility for the DFB which is made up of fire brigades from the four local authorities in the county – Fingal County Council, Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, South Dublin County Council and the City Council.

Councilor Daithí Doolan, a Sinn Féin representative on DCC says that the council has failed to do any fire risk assessments for the county as required under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 1989 and 2005. When he asked the City Manager, John Fitzgerald, about the fire risk assessments he (Fitzgerald) said that fire risk assessments had been carried out for permanent work locations ( fire stations, offices, workshops). Doolan says this is a half-hearted attempt and that by not doing an adequate assessment DCC have no idea how many personnel and resources are needed for the county.

Tony McDonnell, who is the SIPTU union convener for the DFB says that it is "greatly under-resourced", and it has to be expanded. There has been only one additional ambulance but the amount of ambulance calls the DFB receives has increased massively – in1985 they received 26,000; now they are dealing with 90,000 calls a year. Last year the DFB asked for an additional two ambulances.

A report done by independent consultants, Farrell Grant Sparks (FGS) into Fire Services in Ireland in 2002 highlighted the lack of funding given to the Irish Fire Services and the lack of adequate reviews. "As might be anticipated in a regime which has it origins in a system which was put in place in 1945, and which was last reviewed in its entirety in 1975, a considerable array of shortcomings can now be identified." They also said there were problems with the funding given to the service "The yearly basis for budgeting, both state and local is unsatisfactory."

DCC were unable to respond in time to questions put to them by Village. They also said they did not feel it was "appropriate" to run an advertisement with Village (they were intending to do so in this issue) if Village was running this story.