Ambulance crews and fire service attacked

AMBULANCE and fire brigade crews have criticised the lack of protection and support they receive following the latest in a spate of attacks on emergency workers.

Two Dublin Fire Brigade (DFB) ambulance workers from Donnybrook station needed hospital treatment following an unprovoked attack as they attended to an injured couple in Dublin’s Stephen’s Green on Wednesday evening.

Gardaí investigating the incident arrested two men who were later released without charge.

Emergency workers say they are constantly coming under attack when they are called to the scene of an incident.

Last year in Dublin there were 60 reported attacks on emergency crews while Cork crews were attacked 11 times last year.

Earlier this month two Cork crew members were beaten up in Ballincollig.

“This is an ongoing problem. It has happened before and is happening on a too frequent basis for our liking,” said emergency crew member and SIPTU representative Tony McDonnell, who works as a firefighter and ambulance crew member from Dublin’s North Strand Fire Station. “There was a time when an emergency uniform was respected but not anymore. It seems to be a free-for-all now.”

Apart from aggressive verbal abuse and spitting, emergency workers routinely report being attacked with knives, axes, bottles and bricks.

In Tallaght’s fire station, one of the country’s busiest, all but a handful of the station’s crew members have been attacked on the job. One station crew member has been out on leave for over a year since a vicious attack left him seriously injured.

Mr McDonnell said that, apart from the issue of violence, there was also an issue of employer support which needed to be addressed.

Firefighters and ambulance workers, unlike gardaí, do not have an automatic right to claim compensation if they are injured while on the job.

“People should not be left out on a limb by their employer if they are injured. Emergency workers like firefighters, ambulance crews and nurses need to be fully protected.

“Gardaí have the Garda Compensation Act and, if they are injured, they can make a case on a no-fault basis to the courts. We don’t have anything like that,” Mr McDonnell said.