Shortage of 'retained firefighters' across Mayo is highlighted by TD

The shortage of 'retained firefighters' in a number of counties, including Mayo, has been highlighted in Dáil Éireann.

Dublin TS BRíd Smith said said she did a Google search of the term "retained firefighters" in order to find out what has been happening in the field.

She elaborated: "What comes up is that almost every county in the State is desperately trying to recruit members because there is a chronic shortfall in staffing, whether it is in Wexford, Kerry, Waterford, Sligo, Mayo or Donegal.

"All of the counties are all chronically short-staffed. This is not anything new.

"Two years before they died, Mark O'Shaughnessy and Brian Murray, took part in a local protest in Bray to highlight safety concerns around the issue of the understaffing at the station.

"Instead of having 15 firefighters at the time, Bray had ten.

"Whenever we ask questions in the Dáil about what is happening with this service, we are told it is an issue for the relevant local authority.

"I was a councillor for seven years and I know there are issues with local authorities and the fire service but technically the buck stops here, particularly because we cannot run a society, legally, safely or any other way, without a fire service.

"It is a two-way street but the State does not value some of its most important front-line workers. Passing the buck to local authorities is not good enough. It has to stop."