WHAT'S THE STORY WITH CHARGING FOR EMERGENCY SERVICES?

PRICEWATCH WAS recently contacted by a woman who had been involved in a minor car accident in Carrick-on-Shannon in which, fortunately, no one was hurt. Unfortunately, her wallet did not escape so lightly: she was subsequently hit with a bill of more than €1,000 for a fire brigade which came to the scene of the crash despite neither being called nor, she claims, needed.

In the immediate aftermath of the incident, with broken glass lying all over the place, she did not know the extent of the injuries to her passengers or to those travelling in the other car so she felt she had no option but to call 999 and request the presence of the Garda and an ambulance.

A fire tender also arrived and spent less than 15 minutes at the scene clearing up the mess. Weeks later, she received a demand for €1,117 from Leitrim County Council. She immediately contacted the council and was told it was procedure for at least one unit of the fire brigade to attend the scene of an accident following a 999 call and that the local authority had no choice but to recoup its costs. It was explained to her that the charge was a little bit more expensive because it happened on a Saturday – double time for the nine firemen who were on the scene.

She was understandably dismayed, not least because she had not been informed of any charge at any time, until the bill popped through her letterbox. It could hardly have come at a worse time as she happened to be saving frantically for her upcoming wedding, but, after calling a number of consumer advocacy groups, she was told she had little option but to pay up and try and recoup the costs from her insurer – some motor insurance polices cover such call-out charges, others do not. Hers does not.

Another depressing element of the story for her is that had the incident occurred in several nearby local authority areas, there would have been no charge at all. Under the 1981 Fire Services Act, local authorities have the right to supplement Government funding for the provision of fire services with charges of their own, but there remains a clear lack of consistency across the State about the administration of fire services and application of charges.

ALTHOUGH DUBLINCity Council, which spends more than €100 million on its Fire Brigade services annually, does have charges for businesses, there are no charges for households or for people involved in road accidents. A similar policy applies in Cork City and County, while Wicklow County Council charges domestic users €250 for a chimney fire and attendance at a road traffic collision will cost those involved the wage cost of the firemen at the scene plus a further third to cover administrative charges.

Conor Faughnan of the AA describes the charges associated with crashes as “madness” and potentially very dangerous. He is also concerned that they are becoming increasingly common. He told Pricewatch that he had been made aware of a number of similar situations to the Carrick incident in recent weeks. “It may be that the local authorities are cash-strapped, but a pay-per-use system is not the answer. It is a flawed policy from a road safety perspective. It is a major mistake if local authorities are effectively discouraging people from ringing the emergency services.” He said it would be dangerous to let a situation develop whereby people would be “afraid to call the emergency services because of concerns about the bills they may face. Something which might on the surface look like a minor tip could leave someone with a fatal head injury.”

Regarding the specifics of our reader’s concerns, Faughnan says that, from “a natural justice perspective”, it is “entirely unreasonable to expect someone to pay for a service that they never asked for or needed. There does need to be some mechanism to deter people from making trivial calls, but this is the worst possible way to deal with the issue. There is neither rhyme nor reason to it and we in the AA believe it should be stopped.”

Leitrim County Council confirmed that the authority did charge people as outlined, as it is legally entitled to do under the 1981 act. In a statement, the council said the issue of billing was only “dealt with after the incident”.

It denied that the Fire Service was called automatically to every road traffic accident, but “only when needed”, and said the need was “based upon the answers to a number of standard questions asked by the emergency services operator”.

It rejected the AA’s assertions that such substantial charges could see people becoming increasingly reluctant to make emergency calls and said “safety takes precedence over financial considerations”. It was the experience of the Leitrim Fire Service that “such considerations do not exist in the mind of someone who is trapped in a vehicle or who feels that he/she needs assistance, nor would or should such consideration deter any caller who seeks assistance on behalf of an accident victim. It makes eminent sense to operate on the precautionary principle.”

WHILE THE STATEMENTdid not deal with the specifics of our reader's problem, it said a waiver system was in operation and "applications may be made for part or all of the costs to be waived". A spokesman for the Minister for the Environment, John Gormley, said while current legislation allows local authorities to set their own call-out charges, "there does seem to be a significant discrepancy between how local authorities are using the legislation".

He said the Minister is establishing a Fire Services Directorate later this month, which is mostly to do with the quality of service but will also focus on the issue of charges “and advise what the best practice should be”. He said a deterrent was needed to stop people making bogus calls to the emergency services but that the need for a deterrent needed to be coupled with a common-sense approach which would not see genuine 999 callers being punished financially for trying to access emergency services.

On the Pricewatch blog, one poster said our reader should not have called 999, but rung the Garda instead. “If the Garda deem a fire brigade to be necessary, then they can call it out.”

Another poster agreed. “This person needs to be educated on the use of 999. It is for emergencies. If nobody was hurt why did she call the ambulance? In future, the first number you call is the Garda, second a tow truck, the third your husband for a lift home.”