COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, January 16, 2012

MOTION NO. 10

MOTION: Councillor G. O'Connell

That the members of this Council are opposed to the imposition of a call-out charge for the Fire Services within this County and request the County Manager to so inform the City Council and to further inform the City Manager that it is not in keeping with good governance, where there are shared facilities or services, to unilaterally impose such an operational change on such a vital public service on the citizens of this County.

REPORT:

Dublin City Council operates the Fire Service on behalf of all four local authorities in Dublin on an agency basis - this includes the efficient management of the service both in service and costs terms.   However the County Manager is engaged in discussion through the DLA (Dublin Local Authorities) Managers Forum on management and costs in relation to the fire service.   The action taken by the City Manager to introduce the charge (which is an executive function) was taken in consultation with the County Managers of Fingal, Dun Laoghaire and South Dublin.  The costs over the past 3 years have reduced slightly but there is no doubt there is still capacity for further savings within the service itself.  There is also a Liaison Group - the Fire Service Development Board which has been set up across the four authorities which is looking at the service itself.  Part of this role, in the context of developing the service, is about introducing efficiences and ensuring that the emphasis is clearly on trying to reduce risk which in turn reduces costs. 

 It should be noted that the formal agreement for the operation of the fire service empowers Dublin City to act on behalf of the other local authorities on the management of the service including costs.

Set out below are the costs to this Council over the past five years:-

Year	Costs
2007	€18,398,790.79
2008	€18,944,000.00
2009	€20,700,509.00
2010	€18,048,739.00
2011	€17,085,529.00
Total	€93,177,567.79

The Dublin Fire Service is the only such Fire Service which has not instigated a charge for the service.  The South Dublin County Manager has been advocating for some time that a charge be introduced which would be in line with other counties / cities and which would go some way towards reducing costs.  This Council will continue to work with the other Dublin Authorities towards driving change within the service which would further reduce costs.  There is no attempt to reduce the responsiveness of the service and it is not believed that the introduction of these charges which are extremely modest given the cost of the service will hinder households in calling the service when they need it. 

There have been meetings with the Insurance Federation to discuss the levy which is on household insurance policies.  Where households are insured they will be able to claim the charge back on their insurance.  It should also be pointed out that social housing (where the Council itself is the insurer) tenants will not be liable for a charge,  The City Council has undertaken to deal with cases on an individual basis where no insurance exists.  It has also been agreed that a campaign will be run to ensure that residents continue to call for fire service assistance as normal and as possible in a fire event.