The Taoiseach's suggestion that a full-time fire service in Bray would not have saved the lives of two firefighters who died last week was described yesterday as "outrageous" by the family of sub-officer Brian Murray.
In an open letter to the Taoiseach, the family took issue with the comments which were made after last Wednesday's fire at a disused factory which killed Mr Murray and firefighter Mark O'Shaughnessy.
During his visit to Bray last week, the Taoiseach said both men were very experienced, and he was not sure that a full-time service would have altered what happened to them.
Last night, a Government spokesman said the Taoiseach had received a copy of the letter from the family, and would be replying to it in due course.
In a letter distributed to the media before yesterday's funeral, the family called on the Taoiseach to withdraw the remarks and support their campaign for a full-time fire service in Bray.
They said Mr Murray had often commented that the absence of a full-time fire service in the town was putting the lives of people in danger.
There was a time lag between the response time of a full-time fire service and a retained fire service which was critical in tackling large fires, the family maintained.
The letter states: "If you were to have spoken to Brian or any of his frontline colleagues they would have explained this to you and even related real-life incidents to you when this lost time was a factor in the outcome of an incident."
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