Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 6 July 2023
3. Deputy John Brady asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide an update on his efforts to resolve the issues of pay, recruitment, retention and rosters in the retained firefighters service. [33420/23]
View answerThis question is to ask the Minister to provide an update on any efforts he is taking to address the recruitment and retention crisis in the retained fire service that has resulted in industrial action and strike action, which is currently suspended and now before the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC. What actions is the Minister taking now to address these key issues that affect the 2,000 retained firefighters across the State?
The implementation of the retained review report recommendations, and the Deputy may know this, is currently part of a sensitive deliberative process of industrial relations negotiations under the auspices of the Labour Court. I inform the House again that I commissioned this review that produced 13 recommendations, which we accepted. The chair of the Labour Court wrote to the Local Government Management Agency, LGMA, and SIPTU on 16 June inviting representatives of both parties to attend exploratory talks, which took place on Monday, 19 June.
The purpose of that meeting was to allow the Labour Court to be made aware of the details of the dispute such that the court could form a view as to whether, in the exercise of its statutory functions, it could assist the parties in finding a resolution. All stakeholders agreed to attend and met the Labour Court on 19 June. The Local Government Management Agency, supported by representatives of the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform and my Department, attended the court representing the management side. Following detailed engagements with both sides, the chair indicated the Labour Court would intervene in this dispute. SIPTU suspended the operational aspects of its ongoing industrial action pending the formal outcome of the Labour Court hearing that took place on 26 June. I wish to take this opportunity to recognise the positive steps SIPTU has taken in suspending the operational aspects of its industrial action to allow the resumption of fire service provision in the interests of public safety and for the safety of firefighters themselves. The Labour Court’s recommendations, once issued, will be considered by both sides. I am taking a personal interest in this issue. My Department will continue to support the LGMA in its role as an employer.
The engagement has been positive. It has been undertaken through the industrial relations mechanism, which I had always said was the way forward on this issue. We will await the determination of the Labour Court and take the situation from there. I have committed to firefighters that we will, and will continue to, advocate on their behalf. They know that and I have met many of them.
It was the Minister's failure to address the recruitment and retention crisis that destabilised the retained fire service right across the State and forced these retained firefighters into having no alternative but to initiate industrial and strike action. This is down to the Minister and his consistent failure. We know the key issues here. We know the constraints that have been placed on the retained firefighters, including work-life balance and being on call 24-7. We also know about the recommendations.
Recommendation 2 states, "A new framework for service delivery is required that ... provides remuneration, which effectively balances the availability requirements" for the retained firefighters, so it is there in black and white that remuneration needs to be addressed. However, negotiations between the LGMA and the retained firefighters broke down because of the constraints that were put by the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, on the ability to deliver a solution to this, and to essentially deal with remuneration. The Government was responsible for breaking down the negotiations. That is why we are currently before the WRC. It is the Minister's failure that has led us to the situation we are in.
I inform Deputy Brady that the matter is before the Labour Court. I am not going to go down the road Deputy Brady has blatantly gone, in trying to politicise what is a really important issue. We have seen the Deputy's theatrics here before. This Government has a focused, determined, and deliberative approach. I have met many firefighters all over the country. I commissioned the review. We accepted the recommendations. Pay is core to that. I am hopeful that it will be possible to resolve the situation through the Labour Court, which is the proper way to do this.
I thank the unions and the firefighters themselves for engaging in that process. The 2,000 firefighters right across the country in the retained fire services are incredibly dedicated people. I want their terms and conditions to reflect that and to be enhanced. We will get there. It may disappoint Deputy Brady, because it might remove one of his political campaigns, but this is too important for the workers and for public safety. The engagement at the Labour Court has been very positive. I will await its determination. We will not be found wanting.
The Minister has been found wanting. The Government, and successive Governments, have been found wanting for more than 20 years, because this crisis has not just evolved over the last weeks or months. This has been a crisis for 20 years or more. The Minister talks about politicising an issue but it has been politicised because of the successive failures of the political establishment, including the Minister's own party. The matter is before the Labour Court, as the Minister correctly outlines. That is the case because of his failure and the failure of his Government to address the key issue of remuneration and the fact that the constraints put on the negotiations by the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, resulted in them breaking down.
I am very hopeful that key recommendations will come from the Labour Court, dealing with the work-life balance issues and remuneration. They are the key issues that need to be addressed. The key question is whether the Minister will give a commitment that the recommendations that come out of the process will be immediately addressed and implemented. That is the crux of the question here; whether the Minister is going to sit on the recommendations that come from the Labour Court and allow this issue to continue. We know the industrial action has been suspended by the retained firefighters but they are ready and willing to re-engage in the industrial action if the Minister continues to sit on his hands and allow this crisis to continue into the future. Will the Minister act on the recommendations when they do come from the Labour Court?
Let us allow the Labour Court do its work. As I said, there has been very good engagement from SIPTU and there is a way forward on this. I want this resolved. I have been very clear on that. Remuneration is key to that. No one is sitting on their hands and no one will be sitting on their hands. The unions have entered into the process and I welcome that. Let the Labour Court do its job. Let the court issue its recommendations following its determination and they will be considered very seriously.
