Fire services fears not fully extinguished

Sinéad Hogan

County councillors are satisfied that Cavan’s 10 fire stations won’t suffer amidst national plans to restructure the fire service - with just one voicing the seemingly obvious concern that high standards leave us ripe for cutbacks and savings.

At the council meeting on Monday, our Chief Fire Officer’s confidence for the service was widely welcomed. Only Fine Gael councillor, Seán McKiernan aired the concern that the very fact of meeting or exceeding targets may spell opportunities for cuts and savings to the government.

The new policy document, ‘Keeping Communities Safe - An Integrated Approach to Efficient Fire Safety in Ireland’, aims to set national standards for the fire service and reduce its size and expenditure.

As in other fire services throughout the country, Mr Burke and staff are now dealing with the requirement to complete a survey to assess their service in terms of compliance with the new national standards.

Mr. Burke told the meeting that he anticipates adherence to standards will be strong and, as a result, there will be little impact in terms of stations or what the service the citizen currently receives.

'Cavan is well within the targets... I don’t foresee any changes in what we’re doing at the moment,' he told members.

 

Shared service

He confirmed that what is certain is that Cavan and Monaghan will be moving to a shared service - one of seven alongside 14 single local authority services.

Who will be the lead service can be decided in the first event between Cavan and Monaghan themselves (starting with discussions between the County Managers), and will be decided by the Minister in the event that agreement isn’t reached.

Concern

Councillors spoke successively to welcome the view, some emphasising a positive approach, but Fine Gael councillor, Seán McKiernan staved off any possible accusations of naivety.

‘There is some concern when you’re setting national standards and Cavan is in a standard of its own... There is concern that Cavan might have to go backways a bit... I don’t want to scaremonger... but the concern is that’s it’s not a trojan horse for cutbacks.’

The issue is on the agenda for a Special Policy Committee (SPC) meeting in July, and Mr Burke will have a more advanced presentation for councillors later this year.