Dublin city firefighter panel is axed

bluetop

300k goes up in smoke as city firefighter panel is axed

By Niall O'Connor

Tuesday April 10 2012

DUBLIN City Council forked out a staggering €300,000 on a major recruitment drive for the fire service -- but not a single additional post will be filled externally.

The council disbanded the Dublin Fire Brigade recruitment panel despite forking out the enormous sum over a five- year period.

Hundreds of potential recruits were interviewed for the panel, with the council even hiring out Croke Park as part of the drive, the Herald can reveal.

The Council had initially planned to draw individuals from the panel and train them up to work as firefighters.

The decision to scrap the panel has been made despite the serious strain on the fire service.

Any new recruits deemed necessary now will be filled from within the local authority, it has emerged.

Fire sources have told the Herald that the force comes under "intense pressure" particularly during holiday periods.

"We're struggling to cope at the very best of times. The strain we're under at busy periods like St Patrick's Day makes it extremely difficult to cover all call outs" a source said.

And the Herald understands that the overtime bill for the fire brigade came to a hefty €3.05m last year.

Now the taxpayer is counting the huge cost after it emerged the entire panel has been scrapped.

Up to €300,000 has already been spent since May 2007, the Herald understands.

Some of the 100 potential recruits have been left "devastated" after their dreams of working for the fire brigade are shattered.

Father-of-two Conor Kilroy (33) told the Herald that people scrapped their emigration plans and gave up their jobs in the hope of becoming firefighters.

"We feel misled and completely let down. We're devastated and we do not believe axing the panel makes economic sense" he said.

"We are now going to campaign for the panel to be reinstated. The council have a lot of questions to answer and they cannot ignore us" he added.

In a letter to one of the recruits, fire service executive manager Gerry Geraghty said that the panel was scrapped due to the difficult economic circumstances.

"The decision to terminate the Panel was not taken lightly and we understand the time and effort put in by applicants. Unfortunately Dublin Fire Brigade, like all public services, have been particularly affected by the economic downturn.

"While it may be of little consolation now people are of course entitled to apply again when we eventually recommence open recruitment"

The City Council was today unable to provide a comment.

hnews@herald.ie

bluetop

whoops wrong post, removed.

Delancey

I guess the reference to filling Fire Fighter positions internally refers to the Croke Park Agreement whereby public servants can now be moved between departments as and when needs dictate.

djor88

Ridiculous, to think that the council will only be allowing current council workers transfer into DFB if and when they recruit, it makes no sense. Ultimately it eliminates people who genuinely want the job, who are geared towards it and who's dream it is to be firefighters.. It's such crap, feel sorry for the people on the panel.

lonfire1

If they axed the panel for d f b and sooner or later lads will be obviously retiring , how are they going to get new recruits?it's crazy, dose someone behind a desk in the council offices get transferred ?

amen

More importantly will they have to pass the same fitness tests?
Will they be starting on the bottom of the DF pay scale or does their existing salary transfer across?

Does the DCC have 100+ surplus staff already and if so what are they doing?

Delancey

lonfire1 wrote: »

If they axed the panel for d f b and sooner or later lads will be obviously retiring , how are they going to get new recruits?it's crazy, dose someone behind a desk in the council offices get transferred ?

Thats exactly how they are planning to do it . Prior to the Croke Park Agreement if DFB needed more people they recruited directly from the population , now they will seek to transfer staff from areas where there is overstaffing or staff are otherwise no longer required.

This process is not unliike that for Airport Fire Fighter / Police roles , DAA no longer recruit openly but rather appoint people already working for them in other positions.

Interesting point made about fitness tests.

DOBBER112

So basically if you want a career as a Firefighter/Paramedic with DFB you now have to get a job with Dublin City Council first....this is wrong on so many levels just another hoop for the monkey to jump through and the whole process will reek of nepotism! :eek:
I feel sorry for the people on the panel, they obviously worked hard to get on it and its seriously upsetting/disappointing for them.

Delancey

Yeah , terribly hard on those who were on the panel to see it terminated . There is a panel of people waiting to get into the Guards and though the panel remains in place for now there will be no intakes into Templemore for a long time and my gut feeling is that panel will go the way of the DFB one.
In the meantime the governmemt see fit to recruit over 600 into the army - anyone know if there's a war on ?

DOBBER112

Delancey wrote: »

Yeah , terribly hard on those who were on the panel to see it terminated . There is a panel of people waiting to get into the Guards and though the panel remains in place for now there will be no intakes into Templemore for a long time and my gut feeling is that panel will go the way of the DFB one.
In the meantime the governmemt see fit to recruit over 600 into the army - anyone know if there's a war on ?

We're a nation of complete and utter peacekeepers...we can't even fight for our own rights. Maybe they'll send them out to collect the outstanding household tax for our new overlords Germany and France.

ratracer

Delancey wrote: »

Yeah , terribly hard on those who were on the panel to see it terminated . There is a panel of people waiting to get into the Guards and though the panel remains in place for now there will be no intakes into Templemore for a long time and my gut feeling is that panel will go the way of the DFB one.
In the meantime the governmemt see fit to recruit over 600 into the army - anyone know if there's a war on ?

There seems to be a war on our pay, conditions, allowances, o/t etc...:P

lonfire1

Maybe they could take in people from the retained service at least they know the job , and know how to do it!No point training up a load of candidates from different sections in the council that don't even want the job, never mind being able to do it

djor88

It's all very, very Irish... Makes no sense, I'm sure the to the Council bosses it provided some nicer numbers on paper to go this way, but I can't see how it makes any sense, and It can't save that much money... Ridiculous! I reckon either do something else here or move overseas if we want to become firefighters or police...

partnership

Panels normally only have a life of 2 years and may be extended for another year. How long was this panel in existance for because i think it is longer than that in which case it makes sense to axe it. To go to a panel a few years old can waste a lot of time as people will have moved on. They would be better off readvertising and setting up a panel for another 2 years.

ex_infantry man

the waterford city fire service did a recruitment drive also and found out last night from a lad i know is retained that the two positions were filled internally by promoting a retained firefighter in waterford city to full time! why go through an expensive process to promoting a retained rather than hire externally

lonfire1

I heard dublin are recruiting early next year , did anyone here the same ? It dosent make much sense of they have just axed a panel.

Delancey

Any DFB people on this forum when asked that question have said they see no open recruitment for the foreseeable future.
Thats not to say there may not be small numbers transferring in from other local authority departments.

lonfire1

It's hard to know so, when you say other local authority that's obviously within dublin co co and it's probably not open to other county councils , thanks for the reply by the way.

Delancey

lonfire1 wrote: »

It's hard to know so, when you say other local authority that's obviously within dublin co co and it's probably not open to other county councils , thanks for the reply by the way.

Yeah , by other departments I mean those within Dublin Corporation or other Dublin Councils like perhaps Fingal.

Sky123

This might be a bit late but as far as I am aware : yes DFB just had a competition for firefighters held withing all 4 councils. I am one of them who applied.
To answer question from above yes we are going through the same filtering process eg.: aptitude test, interviews, physical and medical the tests will be the same as it previously was .To my knowledge 40 odd jobs are going please please don't quote me on this I heard that in the rumours the first 20jobs are within the council and then the competition is going to be made open to the public.

lonfire1

Sky123 wrote: »

This might be a bit late but as far as I am aware : yes DFB just had a competition for firefighters held withing all 4 councils. I am one of them who applied.
To answer question from above yes we are going through the same filtering process eg.: aptitude test, interviews, physical and medical the tests will be the same as it previously was .To my knowledge 40 odd jobs are going please please don't quote me on this I heard that in the rumours the first 20jobs are within the council and then the competition is going to be made open to the public.

Did you do any Aptitude test s yet? I heard that the external competition is to be listed soon .You are in a great position now especially with the numbers being so low. If you hear anything else will you post it up.
Thanks and good luck

Sky123

Yes I sat and passed my aptitude test and waiting to get my date for the interview which I hope will be soon.

I heard on the grapevine that they going to open the competition next year to the grater public.

But again don't quote me on it, but then there is always a lil truth in rumours

thatboy

I heard it was to be opened a bit sooner too. Still all positive stuff. Many of you left in the competition sky??

Sky123

thatboy wrote: »

I heard it was to be opened a bit sooner too. Still all positive stuff. Many of you left in the competition sky??

As far as I was told 187 went for the aptitude test 102 passed deadline was 28th to have your application form send in and late forms wouldn't be excepted and forfeit your place so who knows who got theirs in on time .... Last time before the embargo my form was in a day to late so made sure not to do the same mistake

Sky123

The jobs for external firefighters are advertised today register with www.publicjobs.ie closing date for that is 25th of July

Good luck

Sky123

Sky123 wrote: »

The jobs for external firefighters are advertised today register with www.publicjobs.ie closing date for that is 25th of July

Good luck

Addition : it was advertised in the first post today and I just noticed we get the first post a day ahead

halpers

What is the first post exactly?

mad1c

Sky123 wrote: »

Addition : it was advertised in the first post today and I just noticed we get the first post a day ahead

You must be a day ahead, just checked publicjobs, no advert for firefighters found..

Sky123

halpers wrote: »

What is the first post exactly?

First post is a magazine /news letter for the council only council staff have acces to it as far as I know

Sky123

mad1c wrote: »

You must be a day ahead, just checked publicjobs, no advert for firefighters found..

Yes it is a day ahead

thatboy

You wouldnt want to be in it for the money!!!!