Sparks are flying over the state of fire services in Galway city and county. Firemen will not move into a new station in Gort because they believe it to be unsafe and too close to a funeral parlour. An inquiry has been initiated into the poor turnout by firemen for an emergency in Salthill. And the local authority's response to lack of fire services on three of its islands is to send out free smoke alarms.
The custom-built station at Gort in south Galway was due for official opening earlier this month but a safety audit by SIPTU on behalf of its members revealed several problems. Galway County Council has confirmed that a "snag list" has been referred to a construction consultant and the builder.
SIPTU identified lack of ventilation in the tower used for training, and the proximity of some electrical sockets to washhand basins, as among the difficulties. The location close to a funeral parlour also had the potential to "cause chaos", Ms Tish Gibbons, SIPTU's Galway branch secretary, predicted.
This comes in a week when the city and county fire service is under some pressure. Only four out of 25 firemen are reported to have responded to an emergency call to a blaze in a Salthill restaurant. Galway County Council says it is investigating what it describes as "these poor response levels", but SIPTU says the local authority is misleading the public.
The union maintains that Limerick - a city of comparable size - has 14 fire personnel on duty at times when Galway has only three. A motion is due to come before tonight's Galway Corporation meeting, expressing grave concern at the apparent lack of resources available to Galway Fire Brigade.
Meanwhile, almost five months after three elderly women lost their lives in a house fire on Inishbofin, Galway County Council's response is to distribute a smoke alarm to every household on each of the four islands within its remit.
The purchase of fire-fighting equipment is being examined, according to the local authority, but no final decision has been taken on providing adequate fire-fighting services, despite many appeals by the islands. Only one of the four Galway islands - Inis Mor - has a firefighting facility, which is provided on a part-time basis by trained volunteers. Unlike volunteers in similar services on the mainland, they are not paid a retainer, but for time spent fighting fires. SIPTU believes the Inis Mor volunteers should receive a retainer.
The lack of such services, or even basic equipment, on the other islands was highlighted after the Inishbofin fire in July. Mrs Eileen Coyne (82), a widow, and her sisters, Ms Brigid McFadden (76) and Ms Margaret Concannon (72), died in the blaze in Mrs Coyne's home, and a man was subsequently charged.
The secretary of the Inish bofin Development Association, Ms Joanne Elliott, said two of the three lives might have been saved if the islanders' appeals for a fire service, or fire equipment, had been met.
Islanders had been calling for such a service for the past 21 years, she said, as there had been two previous fires, neither of them fatal.
However, the chief fire officer for Galway county, Mr John O'Shaughnessy, who examined the scene, said there may have been little that anybody could have done to save the women, even if there had been a fire service on the island.
The chairman of Galway County Council, Mr Paddy McHugh, said last week that funding for such a service on the three islands would have to be provided from central Government funds by the Department of the Environment and/or the Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands. The council could not pay for it from its own resources, he said, adding that the review of fire-fighting capabilities ordered after the Inishbofin tragedy was "continuing".
This review was ordered from four county councils with island responsibilities by the Minister of State for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, Mr Eamon O Cuiv, who is also TD for the Galway islands.
Mr O Cuiv said at the time he would look favourably on any submission from any island to provide fire equipment and services which could be run on a voluntary basis, with appropriate training. Last year, he established a special fund within his Department to assist with additional services not covered by the Department of the Environment or local authorities. It is understood he is still committed to the review, and defends the decision to give Galway islanders smoke alarms as a valuable preventative measure.
The Department of the Environment told The Irish Times it was waiting for Galway County Council to make a written submission. Ms Patricia Quinn of Comdhail Oileain na hEireann, the Irish Island Federation, said it was simply not good enough for the relevant authorities to be passing over responsibility in this way. "People on the islands have been seeking equipment for years, and even tried to have it included under the EU Leader fund scheme - only to be told that this was not possible under the conditions of Leader," she said. "We've already had one tragedy, and do we want another one?"
Last week saw the publication of a guide to major emergencies, which is to be distributed to households on both the mainland and islands in Galway city and county. The booklet, which has been drawn up by the Garda, the Western Health Board, Galway Corporation and Galway County Council, is published in English and Irish, and aims to explain simple logical steps to be taken when an emergency strikes.