Labour urges setting up of national fire authority

A NATIONAL fire authority needs to be urgently established and full-time fire service introduced in areas of high population, the Labour Party said last night.

The deaths of part-time firefighters Mark O’Shaughnessy and Brian Murray in Bray, Co Wicklow, prompted a Dáil debate on the state of the country’s fire service and the Government’s failure to implement recommendations made in a 2002 report.

Cork South Central’s Ciarán Lynch, who tabled a private members’ motion on the fire service, said there was only one full-time service in Co Cork, despite it being the largest county in the country.