Retained firefighters in need of rental support

A local councillor has called on the elected members of Louth CC to support his motion calling on Minister for Housing and Environment Eoghan Murphy to provide specific ring fenced financial assistance to meet the costs of rents for retained firefighters.

They need to rent close to their assigned fire station to allow them enough time to react to call outs. But the costs involved are proving prohibitive for many, so impacting on the number of retained members.

“I don’t like to use the word crisis, but on this issue we are experiencing a crisis whereby Louth County Council are failing to fill vacancies for Retained Firefighters and are also experiencing a retention issue as highly trained retained firefighters are leaving the service. The main issue relates to the inability of Retained Firefighters not being in a position for report to the Fire Station within the prescribed 5 minute call out time because of their residence location,’ said Cllr Paul Bell.

Bell also confirmed that an earlier proposal by him to requesting Louth County Council to purchase a house in close proximity to the local fire station for the use of retained firefighters when on call was rejected by the Council Executive on the basis that it was interfering on a staff matter.

“My focus is to ensure that these highly skilled professionals can respond to all call outs in support of their full time comrades. I am also aware that the situation is so bad that Senior Fire Officers are approaching employers in Drogheda and Dundalk in close proximity to Fire Stations in both towns seeking agreement for employees who may wish to join the service be released to respond to calls. I believe this is a good initiative and I sincerely hope that it works”.