Council reassures public as firefighters begin industrial action

THE Chief Executive of Cork County Council Tim Lucey has reassured the Cork public over potential safety fears during the planned rolling strikes by retained firefighters which are scheduled to begin today.

Retained firefighters - part-time firefighters, who are paid an annual retainer to be available for callouts - are currently seeking better pay and conditions.

They began a campaign of industrial action last week and their union SIPTU has accused the Government of failing to address a recruitment and retention crisis in the service.

With no breakthrough yet, rolling strikes are scheduled to escalate from today with a series of one-day work stoppages at 50% of fire stations nationally at any given time.

If no resolution reached in the coming days, an all-out strike would begin on Tuesday, June 20.

Speaking at a full council meeting on Monday, Mr Lucey said in a strike situation all emergency crises would be responded to which involved a life-threatening situation. 

“We have a Code of Practice to cover contingency planning in emergency situations. Both SIPTU and ourselves are committed to upholding that. This ensures that in a strike situation that all emergency calls that would be involving a life-threatening situation would be responded to,” he said.

“We will be doing everything to ensure that there is no risk to public safety in that regard." 

Meanwhile, at a city council meeting yesterday evening, several motions related to the Fire Services were discussed.

An Rabharta Glas councillor Lorna Bogue advocated for full-time firefighters for large urban areas and called on the council to “ensure that all stations within the city boundary are resourced accordingly”.

In a report responding to the motion, the council stated that in “line with the national risk management categorisation, Ballincollig is suited to a retained service delivery model”.

“Its current station ground has a lower risk profile to the full-time station grounds.

“It has approximately 230 incidents per year compared to our two full time stations which would have approximately 2,800-3,000 incidents in total per year,” the report continued.

It asserted that Cork City Council is “committed to ensuring that all areas in the newly expanded city are provided with the best possible fire service”.

“The fire station in Ballincollig was never designed as a full-time station and is not suitable for a full-time crew and their requirements,” it added.

There were renewed calls from the council floor for Ballincollig Fire Station to be reopened and crewed with full-time staff.

Ms Bogue said firefighters have a “difficult and dangerous job” and retained positions are “not good enough as compensation for the risk that is taken on by people”.

Solidarity councillor Brian McCarthy said the city needs more full time firefighters to “provide adequate cover and better response times in the event of an emergency”.

Fianna Fáil councillor Colm Kelleher commended both sides of the dispute over Ballincollig Fire Station for engaging with the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) on the matter and said he hoped a “constructive and conclusive solution” towards reopening Ballincollig Fire Station in “some shape or form” could be found.

Cork City Council’s chief executive Ann Doherty said she would not be commenting on the matter at this time.

“The employer has been engaged with the WRC, with the firefighters and that is in the process of being considered by the firefighters so out of respect to the workings of the industrial relations machinery of the State, I think it would be respectful not to discuss that tonight because we’re waiting for a response from SIPTU,” she said.