Mayo pays €8m. wage bill for fire service

MAYO County Council paid their fire service staff €8 million over the last two years, with their full-time staff receiving €1,769,400 in wages and salaries, writes Claire McNamara.

Details released under the Freedom of Information Act show that retained fire staff were paid €6 million.

The full-time staff were paid €64,525 for travelling and subsistence expenses, while they also received €14,189 for working overtime.

A sum of €62,080 was also paid to them for other allowances over the past two years.

Meanwhile, retained fire staff were paid €2,087,828 for fire fees, while they received €2,692,355 as a retainer fee.

Separately, they received €432,183 for drills and €342,103 for additional hours, which included work other than fire fees, e,g, training and maintenance.

A sum of €41,344 was given for clothing allowance and €490,443 was paid in gratuities to those retiring after serving for a set time period.

A total of 142 fire staff are employed by Mayo County Council - 120 full-time and 22 part-time. A high percentage of staff are employed in a 'retained' capacity.

As of 2018, the council charged €150 for attendance at a domestic chimney fire, while for attendance at all other domestic incidents, a rate of €750 is charged per hour.

Attendance at all other types of buildings and at all incident types, a rate of €750 is charged per fire appliance per hour.

In relation to the number of call-outs, a record is not held by the council.

However, a record is created for statistical purposes and submitted to the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government.

In 2017, the statistics show there were 888 call-outs, while in 2018 there was 931.

Commenting on the expenditure, Senator Rose Conway-Walsh said: "While it is a vast amount of money it is important to take into account the geographical area, alongside it being a demanding and high risk service that they provide.

"They are front line staff who provide a service in often difficult challenging circumstances, which needs to be acknowledged.

“However, it is important to ensure that citizens and taxpayers are getting value for money and that appropriate investment is made in the fire service for training and education."