Fire charges must be abolished - Labour

Charges levied on members of the public for calling the emergency services are putting the public and fire fighters in unnecessary danger and must be abolished, the Labour Party has said.

The party's spokesman on local government Ciarán Lynch said the current "ad-hoc" system of charging householders, businesses and members of the public for the cost of sending out a fire crew may cause people to hesitate in calling for emergency crews and risked a worsening situation.

"Time is of the essence in situations where there has been a road traffic accident, a fire, or some other kind of emergency, and people should not be put in a position where they have to pause to consider whether they can afford to pay the wages of those fire fighters who arrive at the scene," he said.

"We have seen situations recently where people have been slapped with bills of over €1,000 simply because they did their civil duty by notifying the emergency services of an accident or a fire. What kind of incentive is that to get people to act responsibly?"

Mr Lynch said the money raised through the charges was not put back into the fire service, but simply pooled with the other revenue collected by the local councils.

"As these charges spiral upwards, and in the absence of any clear waiver system, it is inevitable that situations will arise where people will simply make the decision not to call the fire brigade, and either try to tackle the emergency themselves or to simply leave it alone and hope for the best," he said.

Mr Lynch also criticised the system under which charges varied from county to county

"You could have circumstances where people on one side of the road who live in one county would be charged nothing, while people on the other side who might live in another county, would be charged hundreds of euro for the same service," he said.

He also warned that the charges could cause small local contracters to informally establish themselves as "cowboy fire crews" to alow people to avoid dialing 999.

"The results of this scenario are potentially tragic, if not catastrophic," he said.