Emergency call-outs will be responded to during firefighters industrial action

Offaly County Council has confirmed that all emergency calls involving life-threatening situations will continue to be responded to, despite a campaign of industrial action by retained fire fighters which began earlier this week.

The retained fire officers, all of whom are members of SIPTU, commenced their industrial action on Tuesday last. The campaign is set to intensify from next week with a series of rolling strikes to be followed by all out strikes on June 20.

In a statement issued to the Offaly Independent by the Chief Fire Officer, Eoin O’Ceilleachair, the council has confirmed that “robust contingency arrangements” have been put in place, and they moved to assure members of the public that “every effort will be made” to mitigate any risk to them arising from the industrial action.

Members of the public have been advised to continue to call 112 or 999 in the case of an emergency, and the council has said their priority throughout the period of industrial action is to “ensure public safety and have an active contingency plan in place.”

The council said it has engaged with SIPTU at local level to agree contingency plans, and added that SIPTI has confirmed that it will comply with the Code of Practice on emergency disputes to ensure that fire services are provided “even in a strike situation.”

“SIPTU have confirmed that throughout the strike action it will comply with the provisions of the Code of Practice on emergency disputes reflecting the professionalism and dedication of its retained fire service personnel to ensure that fire services are provided even in a strike situation and have confirmed that it will respond to all emergency calls involving life-threatening situations” the statement read.

Up to 2,000 SIPTU members who work as retained firefighters at more than 200 fire stations around the country, including across Offaly, are involved in the industrial action. Their trade union said this week that the retained firefighters are striking to ensure that the Government’s report on the future of the service will be implemented to resolve the “recruitment and retention crisis that threatens to collapse this essential and life-saving community resource”.

Retained firefighters are not full-time employees and are instead paid a retainer to be on call for fire stations.

The system is designed to provide 24/7 cover, with retained firefighters also receiving a per-callout fee.

While the retained firefighters are still responding to emergency callouts as normal, it is understood they will be refusing to engage with scheduled training and courses, large amounts of paperwork, and standard firefighting communications technology for the incident command system.

They will be communicating by phone rather than the radio equipment in the fire stations and fire appliances.