Two Tipperary Sinn Fein Councillors have hit out at the rejection of a motion in respect of the Retained Fire Fighters campaign for improved working conditions.
Cllr Tony Black and Cllr David Dunne say the motion was refused on technicalities, preventing it from being included on the agenda for discussion at the next council meeting, while efforts to engage separately with certain relevant council officials on the matter have also been refused.
The two public representatives say they want Tipperary County Council to enable a full and frank debate on the need to meaningfully address the causes of the recruitment and retention crisis within the retained fire service and also ask that Tipperary County Council to contact the Department of Housing and Local government encouraging action to resolve the dispute.
The councillors say on-call firefighters deserve to have their concerns addressed by
Tipperary County Council, and feel that it is incumbent upon Tipperary County Council to represent their views and their needs. Tipperary county council was represented by the Local Government Management Agency at talks involving SIPTU to resolve the issues which centre on the implementation of a series of recommendations to improve the working conditions of “on call” or “retained firefighters.” The talks broke down last week without Agreement. Minister Darragh O’Brien is calling on all sides to engage with the industrial relations Infrastructure to find an acceptable agreement.
