Siptu organiser Geoff McEvoy has said that recent events in Coolock have highlighted the staff shortages and under-resourcing of the Dublin fire service.
Dublin Fire Brigade had been called to the former Crown Paint factory in Coolock, he told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland.
“Because of the location, the initial suspicion was that this was an industrial fire. So the response was appropriate to what would be needed for an industrial fire. That was three fire trucks, high rise ladder and a district officer. And of course, when they get there, they find that actually they were caught in the midst of a confrontation between a group of individuals and An Garda Siochana.
"And just as we saw at the Dublin riot back in November, the particular nature of that situation, the heightened tension, the risk of violence meant that the fire crews weren't able to extinguish that fire, which turned out to be just in a digger. But they weren't able to extinguish that fire as quickly as they would have been. So those resources then were tied up at that location for much longer than was necessary.”
This incident highlighted two problems which have dogged the service for years, he said.
“Those two problems are one - under resourcing, short staffing and poor quality information about the risks that are out there in the city.
“So when I talk about the first one - under-resourcing and short staffing, I mentioned that there were three fire trucks at that scene, but that day there were already four trucks that were what we call off the room. In other words, not available for service because of short staffing. So with three trucks at the scene, seven not available. That's right. Four not available. That's seven in total that weren't available for the rest of the city for the duration.
"That's the guts of half the fleet. So that means the city, they're only covered by half of the fleet for the whole rest of that incident. And that creates a risk to firefighters and to the public, because that means that if there is another incident, which there was, trucks are going to have to respond from further afield. And that creates delays and delays create additional risk. And we say any additional risk to the public or to firefighters is unacceptable.”
Mr McEvoy said that negotiations were ongoing for a new overall staffing figure.
“We reckon there's possibly about 100 more staff that are needed. And to be fair, there has been recruitment over the past two years. The problem is getting better. It was much worse two or three years ago and we have seen improvements, but there's still a way to go.
"And one of the big concerns we have, for example, is that the Public Appointments Service have apparently informed the city council that they're not available to run a recruitment competition into the fire brigade. And we don't understand how the Public Appointments Service is not available to run a recruitment competition in an essential frontline emergency service.”
While there had been some recruitment, the issue was the “massive hole that needed to be filled” because of years of non-recruitment, he added.
