Council chamber sees fiery debate over motion to reopen Ballincollig Fire Station

There was a fiery debate in the Cork City Council chamber on Monday evening as councillors voted against the immediate reopening of Ballincollig Fire Station.

A motion that Cork City Council would resolve to reopen the Ballincollig fire station immediately with a full-time fire service was defeated at the Special Meeting of Cork City Council on Monday evening.

Seven Cork city councillors brought forward the motion which fell on Monday evening, with five votes for the motion, 18 votes against, and three abstentions.

As part of the next stage of the process, talks are scheduled to take place on Wednesday at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).

Speaking at the meeting, which was well attended by local firefighters, the Chief Executive of Cork City Council Ann Doherty said a full-time service is not required for Ballincollig, as confirmed by National Guidance, and said that it has always been a station ground served by a retained fire crew.

She highlighted that Ballincollig station ground has an incident rate of approximately 230 incidents per year, in comparison to the existing full-time fire station at Anglesea Street which has approximately 1,541 incidents per year and Ballyvolane which has approximately 1,117 incidents per year.

Ms Doherty also made reference to the cost of implementing the proposed resolution which she said is estimated to be in the order of €4.6 million.

She said that a full-time crew in Ballincollig would require an additional 40 full-time firefighters at a cost of €4.1 million.

Based on the 2023 budget non-pay budget, she said a full-time service in Ballincollig would entail additional non-pay costs of over €0.5 million per annum.

Cork City South-East councillor Lorna Bogue (Rabharta Glas) questioned the costs outlined on the report supplied to members by the Chief Executive before the meeting began, saying: 

“The problem with the funding of services is that Cork City Council has not been applying for the funding for services," she said. 

"So, there has been availability of central funding since 2020 for capital expenditure of €61 million nationally for the upgrading of fire stations and Cork City Council did not apply, despite having a fire station that needed upgrading. The upgrading that was required was a kitchen and a staff room.” 

She said that the city development plan foresees a 19% population growth of Ballincollig by 2028 and that the executive ignores the central argument made by the firefighters that the fire service provision needs to be on a city-wide basis.

Cllr Bogue added that this issue has been with the WRC for years and firefighters rightly indicate that they are willing to escalate more serious industrial action if their concerns remain unanswered by their employers. 

She called on the Council to write to the Minister for Local Government to secure funding available for 2024/25 for fire station works, and to write to the Minister separately in relation to its needs for additional programme funding for an increased fire service.

'Playing Politics'

Meanwhile, Councillor Colm Kelleher described the proposed resolution as a “shameless, unconceived, dishonourable example of false hope, of playing politics in an election year”.

He said that if passed, the resolution would create increased services but that it would also mean a supplementary budget which he said would raise the levels of property tax, commercial rates, rents and service fees across the city.

He described the resolution as “political electioneering in its fullest form” and said he was aghast by the hypocrisy from the left.

Sinn Féin councillor Mick Nugent described the continued closure of Ballincollig Fire station as “a scandal”, while Workers' Party councillor Ted Tynan said there are large numbers of industries and areas in Ballincollig that need a fire station to be based nearby in the event of a fire or serious accident.

However, the majority of councillors in attendance at the meeting on Monday agreed that the right solution would be that the Council and firefighters engage with the WRC and find a workable solution that can be implemented to reopen the fire station.