FRONTLINE STAFF in essential services should be exempted from the public recruitment embargo, the Chief Fire Officers’ Association’s annual conference was told yesterday.
Kilkenny county manager Joe Crockett told delegates he had written to the Minister for the Environment requesting an exemption from the embargo for fire and other essential frontline services in Kilkenny. He could not realistically see how vacancies in the service could be left unfilled.
Mr Crockett said cuts in local authority budgets would have an impact on all services, meaning local authorities and fire-fighters would find themselves “under very serious pressure” over the next number of years.
He said with the prospect of a pandemic at some time, programmes must be put in place which would “maintain essential services if 25 per cent to 50 per cent of staff are down with flu”.
Association chairman Michael Raftery welcomed Minister of State Michael Finneran’s announcement at the conference of €21 million for the service for 2009, down €3 million on last year.However, he expressed concern that capital funding into the future had not been secured, and feared there would be a complete halt to building projects.
He said a “robust” alternative means of funding might be required, including a possible local community charge or a levy on insurance companies so the fire service was “not constrained by the boom-bust cycle”.
The conference heard of innovative moves by UK services into youth diversion schemes and community involvement, but was told such schemes were unlikely in Ireland in the near future.
“At the moment there are more fundamental issues, but we should be able to have outreach to disadvantaged communities,” said Mr Raftery.