Councillors united around motion to get Cork City Council to reopen Ballincollig Fire Station
Ultimately the decision to reopen the fire station lies with the bureaucrats on the Council Exceutive.
There was bipartisan support from Cork City Councillors for a motion tabled by Sinn Féin to reopen Ballincollig Fire Station at a meeting of Cork City Council last night.
It comes ahead of a demonstration organised for this coming Friday, May 12, in Ballincollig to have the fire station, which has been closed since late 2021, reopened.
Firefighters in Anglesea Street staged a strike last month to highlight their frustration with Cork City Council’s executive for failing to reopen the fire station in Ballincollig.
Cork City is served by three fire stations, but only two of them are currently active due to the temporary but ongoing closure of the Ballincollig station.
A motion tabled by Ballincollig-based Cllr. Eolan Ryng (SF) asked that the “council recognises that as of May 2023, recruitment campaigns for retained firefighters have not been successful.”
The same motion called for the “reopening of Ballincollig fire station without delay, using full-time firefighters, while maintaining current crewing.”
Cllr. Eolan Ryng said that nationally, there is a failure to retain firefighters, noting that “60% of people currently in retained fire services indicate that they want to leave in the near future.”
“Sooner or later we’re going to have to come to some sort of solution with a full-time alternative to be looked at,” said Cllr. Ryng, adding that “having looked at it for the past two-and-a-half years, now would be the time to call for that.”
Ballincollig, with a population of 20,000, fell under the management of the City Council with the boundary extension in 2019. Cllr. Lorna Bogue (An Rabharta Glas-Green Left) pointed out that the local development plan forecasts Ballincollig’s population to grow by over 50% by 2028.
Cllr. Bogue advised the Executive to “tread carefully because I would contend that there is no administratively correct way to decide that this station remains either closed, or running using retained workers, or indeed that resources are taken from elsewhere to run the station.”
However, while councillors were in broad agreement with the motion, as Cllr. Collette Finn (Green Party) pointed out, they were only offering words on the matter: the issue will only be resolved through negotiations between Cork City Council’s Executive and members of the fire service.
As Cllr. Colm Kelleher (Fianna Fáil) noted, councillors are limited to “making noise on the (chamber) floor” about the dispute.
Cllr. Des Cahill (Fine Gael) said that under the terms of the extension of the city boundary, neither side was meant to be disadvantaged.
“Ballincollig has grown massively in the last 20 years, and it had a constant fire service. Equally, the city is growing in numbers,” he said.
Cllr. John Maher (Labour) pleaded with the Executive to reach an agreement with the firefighters, adding that “we’ve got away with murder.”
Brian Geaney, the City Council’s assistant chief executive speaking on behalf of the Council Executive, stated at last night’s meeting that the Executive had requested the Workplace Relations Committee (WRC) to get incolved in the dispute.
“(Council) management have accepted,” Mr Geaney said.
“We would hope that Siptu would also accept and that’s the best place to deal with this dispute going forward,” Mr Geaney said.
In her final appearance in council chambers before she resigns, Cllr. Fiona Ryan (Solidarity Party - People Before Profit) asked Mr. Geaney “if he didn’t accept that the firefighters don’t have confidence in that mechanism,” before she was shut down by the deputy lord mayor, Cllr. Damian Boylan (FG), who was chairing proceedings.
The motion tabled by Sinn Féin was agreed unanimously.
Members of the Cork City fire service were in the gallery for the council meeting. A spokesman for the fire fighters told Tripe + Drisheen that they will meet this coming Wednesday before deciding their next step, and whether to accept the WRC’s invitation for further talks.
A protest will take place outside Ballincollig fire station on Friday May 12 at 6:30pm.
