A LONE parent whose teenage son called the emergency services after he got into difficulties while climbing with friends has been charged almost €800 by Wicklow County Council’s fire service.
Dara O’Reilly from Wicklow town said she has been threatened with legal action by the local authority if she does not pay the bill.
Ms O’Reilly’s 14-year-old son was climbing on the ruins of Black Castle in Wicklow town last March when he found himself caught in high winds and unable to descend the slippery rocks.
The ruins stand on a cliff edge and while the distance to the ground on the landward side was about 15ft, there was more than a 100ft drop to the sea.
The boy dialled 999 on his mobile phone, expecting to be put through to the local Garda station, instead he got the national emergency services line and was told the fire service would be sent to help him.
At this point he told the operator that he didn’t want to make a fuss and would try to descend himself, but the operator told him she was obliged to alert the fire service and asked him to stay where he was until they arrived.
Following the incident Ms O’Reilly told her son to write to the fire service to thank them for helping him and apologising for the trouble caused. Ms O’Reilly also offered to make a payment of €100 to €150 to the fire service.
She received no acknowledgement of the letter but two weeks later received an invoice for €786.78.
“I wrote to them then and explained my situation – I’m a lone parent and my part time job with St Vincent de Paul is the only income in the house. I got no response to that but 10 days later I got a letter saying they would start legal proceedings if I didn’t pay.”
The council’s Chief Fire Officer Jim Dunphy said he could not comment on individual cases, but said charges were imposed for all call outs to cover costs. The charges were sometimes waived in cases of hardship, he said.
