Retained firefighters need better conditions and Government will deliver, Varadkar says

Terms and conditions for retained firefighters need to improve and the Government is committed to “making that happen”, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.

Mr Varadkar said that he hopes Siptu and the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA) “can re-engage” to resolve the firefighters’ dispute.

Around 2,000 retained firefighters around the country are staging a second day of industrial action. The mostly part-time workers, who keep the services going outside of Ireland’s larger urban centres, are taking industrial action in a dispute over pay and working conditions.

Mr Varadkar said that emergency contingencies were in place and that any emergency calls relating to fire would be answered.

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[ Q&A: Why are 2,000 firefighters taking industrial action and what is the impact? ]

The Taoiseach was responding to Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald during Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil on Tuesday, who said the strike was “unprecedented” and “certainly has not been undertaken lightly”.

“Retained firefighters have been pushed to the very brink by Government, and they feel that they’ve been left with no choice,” Ms McDonald said.

The Dublin Central TD said firefighters were “at their wit’s end”, on call 24/7 for 50 weeks of the year and were “underpaid, overstretched, and feel totally let down”.

“For years, they’ve urged Government to deliver a proper plan, to ensure that they have safe working conditions and fair pay, but Government has buried its head in the sand,” she said.

“Fire services should be a basic public service that communities can rely on, not an optional luxury, but years of underinvestment and failure to plan by Government have seen these services run into the ground and there is now clearly a recruitment and a retention crisis.

[ Retained firefighters set for second day of industrial action with many stations expected to close ]

“Staff shortages are worryingly common and unions warn that staff levels are often dangerously low. Indeed, some fire authorities have been forced to temporarily close stations due to unsafe staffing levels, and there is a real risk that all of this could get even worse.”

Mr Varadkar said negotiations between Siptu and the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA) were ongoing until a number of weeks ago.

He said significant progress had been made, with a proposal made to Siptu, which included a 20 per cent increase in staffing and elements of rebalancing of pay with structured time off and more flexible working arrangements.

The Fine Gael leader said this would all fall within the scope of the public sector pay agreement that “both unions and Government are committed to and both sides must honour”.

“I do hope that the two sides can re-engage to resolve the dispute,” he said. “The offices of the Government are available to intervene. The Workplace Relations Commission would be the first port of call in that regard,” he said.

“My message to the public is that emergency contingencies are in place and that any emergency calls with respect to fire will be answered.”

Mr Varadkar later added there was “room for talks and room for compromise”.