Firefighters reject 'day-time only' proposal for Ballincollig

Firefighters’ limited industrial action is about to enter its seventh week in a row over staffing shortages which the firefighters claim is putting lives at risk

Fire fighters, locals and politicians at a protest last month over the closure of Ballincollig fire station. The Irish Examiner has learned that city officials put forward a proposal at Wednesday's WRC meeting to establish a 9am to 5pm fire service in Ballincollig fire station, with night-cover provided from Anglesea St headquarters. File picture: Eddie O'Hare

Firefighters in Cork city have rejected a ‘day-time only' fire station proposal for the large town which lost its retained fire brigade following the 2019 city boundary extension.

They said the town of Ballincollig needs full-time 24-hour fire cover in its own fire station which has been closed since November 2021, and that the funding must be found for it.

The proposal to crew the station from 9am to 5pm only was tabled for discussion at a meeting between the firefighters’ union representatives and officials of Cork City Council, held under the auspices of the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), which was called in a bid to resolve the firefighters’ limited industrial action which is about to enter its seventh week.

It was triggered in late April following an ongoing row over staffing shortages which the firefighters claim is putting lives at risk. They did, however, agree at the WRC meeting not to escalate their industrial action pending the outcome of another meeting between the sides next week.

But there are concerns on both sides that the situation could worsen from next week when some 2,000 retained fire service members in 200 fire stations nationally are set to commence their industrial action over a worsening recruitment and retention crisis in the service.

Retained brigades in Cork county have been providing a lot of back-up for the city fire brigade in recent weeks.

The retained brigade’s campaign of industrial action is due to begin on June 6 with members restricting their work to only responding to emergency calls. A series of rolling work stoppages are then due to start on June 13, with the action set to escalate to an all-out strike on June 20 if the dispute has not been resolved.

The Irish Examiner has learned that city officials put forward a proposal at Wednesday's WRC meeting to establish a 9am to 5pm fire service in Ballincollig fire station, with night-cover provided from Anglesea St headquarters.

But the proposal was rejected because it would have involved taking up to two fire fighters from certain other crews on duty elsewhere in the city to work in Ballincollig. A source described the proposal as "a non-runner in its entirety" because it would have lead to dangerously low crewing levels on every fire truck in the city.

City Hall has now been told to come back with new proposals to re-open Ballincollig fire station, even on an interim basis, without affecting the crewing resources elsewhere in the city.

There are unconfirmed reports that the cost of establishing a full-time brigade in the town has been estimated at around €4m, including annual staffing costs and the cost of modifications to the fire station to provide living quarters for a full-time brigade. The staffing costs would have to be found from within the council's own resources.

The town had a retained fire service when it was within the administrative area of Cork County Council until the 2019 city boundary extension. Despite the launch of a high-profile retained firefighter recruitment campaign over two years ago, Cork City Council has yet to hire a single retained firefighter to crew the Ballincollig station.