Mattie McGrath: Condemns government over volunteer fire service crisis
Mattie McGrath spoke on 15 Nov 2022 about the state of retained and volunteer fire services and ambulance provision. He accused the government and the minister of neglect and warned of a retention crisis after citing an NDFM survey showing 60% of retained firefighters intend to retire or leave within five years.
Respect for firefighters
He urged respect for firemen and women, saluted volunteers "from the bottom of my heart" and highlighted crews in the gallery and in towns and villages in Tipperary who stand ready to respond to emergencies.
Retention warning and outdated model
He cited an NDFM survey indicating that 60% of retained firefighters intend to retire or leave in the next five years and argued the service is still operating on a model "since the 1950s," calling recent trends "appalling."
Strain on ambulance and emergency response
He described incidents in which firefighters must block roads at fatalities and wait with seriously injured patients for hours because the ambulance service is depleted, saying the strain forces volunteers to fill critical gaps across the country.
Accommodation and recruitment barriers
He relayed the example of a volunteer named Mark who left the service because he could not secure local accommodation, noting residence requirements and housing shortages exclude people in rural Ireland from joining the retained service.
Political criticism and call for action
He accused the government and the minister of wilful neglect, saying they had accepted motions previously yet opposed this motion, calling the situation shameful and urging respect and better support for the fire and ambulance services.
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Remarque to Count Cawola, respect is the most important thing, and we're talking about it here in this house, everywhere we go, whether it's bathrooms or whatever, to respect our colleagues and our people. Will we show respect to the firemen and women up in the gallery tonight, and in every town and village in Tipperary, who are waiting for that call, and the country, who are waiting for that call to go out, put themselves in the line of danger, to look after us? Imagine we're operating on a model that's there since the 1950s, imagine that, Minister, so your government and successive governments have really let them down, and we have a survey undertaken by the NDFM of retained firefighters that indicated that 60% of the service intended to retire or leave the service into the next five years. Minister, Minister, this is appalling, it's an appalling vista, because you know why the guarantee is so scarce on the ground now, that the firemen, on Sunday night where we're in a fatality in Carrick and Sure, the firemen have to block the roads, and that happens on a regular basis, and many occasions the ambulance service is so depleted, that the firemen and women have to sit with a patient, seriously injured in many cases, and stay with that patient for hours to wait for an ambulance while the folly of ambulance is crisscrossing the country, the damage that you've done to the ambulance service as well, and it all falls back, and volunteers, volunteers, volunteers, volunteers, volunteers, and volunteers, volunteers, and volunteers, and volunteers. I salute them from the bottom of my heart, and the work that they do, and the way they put us out in danger. We have Tipperary Town, where we're shot there for the last three or four years, and management know about it, when there's an annual call out in Tipper Town, a unit has to be mobilised with cattle, or indeed care, and that is a scandalous situation, and who's the backup to come behind those brave men and women, if they're needed to help to rescue them? And we saw what happened in Donegal and in Cresla, we saw what could happen anywhere in the flick of a match. I spoke to Mark this evening, who had to leave the service, he loved his job, because he couldn't get accommodation. Imagine if they have to live and reside within five minutes of their station. So you can't get accommodation. So that excludes a cohort of volunteers from rural Ireland that can't join because they're on call and they haven't the support or they haven't the time to get there. So look, it's time that we copped on here. I've seen you here accepting motions here willy-nilly with the last 12-15 months, and you have the audacity to oppose this motion here tonight. I say shame on your government, and shame on your minister. A minister of mine wouldn't even wait for us to have our speech. So I salute the brave men and women of the retail fire services, and we must look after them and have respect for them. Thank you very much.
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