Renewed calls for Ballincollig fire station to be opened 'without delay' heard at council meeting

RENEWED calls for Ballincollig Fire Station to be reopened and crewed with full-time staff have been heard at a meeting of Cork City Council.

Ballincollig Fire Station has been closed since late 2021 as efforts to recruit for a retained fire service have been unsuccessful.

SIPTU members employed as firefighters in Cork City commenced limited industrial action over a fortnight ago in a bid to see the station reopened, with members claiming that a lack of resources is "endangering members and public safety".

At a council meeting on Monday evening, the Sinn Féin councillors tabled a motion urging the council to recognise that its recruitment campaigns for retained firefighters have not been successful.

The motion called for the reopening of Ballincollig Fire Station “without delay, using full-time firefighters, while maintaining current crewing”.

Speaking at the meeting, Ballincollig-based Sinn Féin councillor Eolan Ryng commended the work of the city firefighters, some of whom were present in the public gallery while the council meeting went on.

Nationally, Mr Ryng said, there is a “crisis” in the retained fire service.

“60% of people in the retained fire service have indicated that they want to leave in the near future. 

“If that’s the situation nationally, many of which are rural areas, that presents I think some of the difficulty we see with the recruitment of a retained service,” he continued.

Fianna Fáil councillor Colm Kelleher also renewed his calls for Ballincollig Fire Station to be crewed with full-time firefighters.

“The dogs on the street unfortunately at this time know that the retained model in an urban area is just not viable,” the Ballincollig native said.

Meanwhile Solidarity councillor Fiona Ryan, in her last contribution as a city councillor lambasted what she described as council management’s “continued bullishness and stubbornness” when approaching the city firefighters.

“It’s time for the executive to back down and accept that their plan has failed,” she continued.

The council’s assistant chief executive Brian Geaney told the meeting that council management has requested the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) to get involved in the dispute.

“The WRC has invited both parties to talks. Management has accepted and we would hope that SIPTU would also accept,” he continued.

A spokesperson for SIPTU told The Echo last week that the union was “ready, willing and able to engage but, as advised to the council both verbally and in writing, we require sight of the proposal that is being referred colloquially as ‘Plan B’ before we engage with the WRC”.