By Jonathan Magee
A public meeting has been called for Arranmore Island next Wednesday, July 22 after it emerged that Donegal County Council is not renewing funding for its two paid fire staff on the island.
Cllr Micheál Mac Giolla Easbuig told the Donegal News that one of the two funded positions is being lost to retirement, while the other will simply not be refunded. He did not hold back on what the move means for the island.
“It is a step-down service,” he said.
The councillor said he is awaiting a response from director of service Gary Martin and Donegal County Council’s chief executive on the matter.
Cllr Mac Giolla Easbuig said he has campaigned throughout his time as a councillor for Arranmore and Tory Island to be treated equally to the mainland when it comes to funded fire cover, arguing that fire risk does not lessen on an offshore island.
“A house will burn as fast on Arranmore as it will on the mainland,” he said, adding that the islands’ fire volunteers should be given the same retention recognition as their mainland counterparts.
He said the council could not claim ignorance of the stakes involved.
“And now what we are doing is deliberately going backwards. Our council is more than aware of the population of the island and of the number of houses, and unfortunately over the years there have been very serious incidents on the island.”
Funding renewal for fire staff on the Donegal islands looks set to be withdrawn.
Tory Island left with only a decrepit water bowser
Cllr Mac Giolla Easbuig said the Arranmore decision could not be looked at in isolation, pointing to what he described as an equally stark situation on Tory Island, where they depend on an old fire bowser, which he described as “shameful.”
He was direct about how the plan to rely on mainland brigades for the islands would be received.
“This idea that we are going to take away a service that the island community demands will not be accepted, and will be resisted.”
Cllr Mac Giolla Easbuig questioned the practicality of dispatching help from the mainland, pointing to the islands’ dependence on ferry crossings.
“This idea that they’ll send out the nearest brigade, but they’ll have their own areas to cover, and the time it would take them to go on this island, what happens if there’s no boat running or if the boat is on the other side.
“By the time the boat is dispatched, filled with fire staff, the time to get to the other side, time to get to the scene, it is far too long.”
He said the islands’ fire personnel had earned the same standing as any other emergency crew in the county.
“At the end of the day they are professionals, granted volunteers but professionals that are highly trained and highly skilled and we depend very heavily on them, so why would we treat the islanders any different to fire staff on the mainland?”
A meeting will be held in Arranmore Hall on Wednesday, with trade union representatives invited to attend. Cllr Mac Giolla Easbuig has also requested an emergency meeting with the council.