Donegal County Council is to review the fees imposed when Emergency Services are called out to road traffic collisions.
Those fees have increases in recent times, with the council attributing the increases to the higher costs being incurred in implementing the 2023 deal for retained fire fighters which was agreed at the Workplace Relations Commission.
Cllr Michael McBride told a Letterkenny Milford Municipal District meeting that the cost of a call out is now €1,600, and while insurance companies will pay if the claimant calls the fire service themselves, they won’t if the call is made by a third party.
Cllr McBride believes high costs mean high non-payment rates,and extra legal costs if cases go to court.
He believes a lower fee would have a higher payment rate…………
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Motion and response in full –
I ask that the members of the Letterkenny/Milford municipal area support my call to
have a review of the current fees for the call outs of emergency services to road
traffic accidents.
Response:
It is acknowledged that these costs would have seen an increase in recent times
following the implementation of the 2023 WRC agreed retained fire fighters working
arrangements which has, inter alia, seen each stations crew compliment increasing to
a general figure of 12 (up from 9), and currently 15 in Letterkenny & Buncrana. These
increases were put in place to allow for a week on/week off roster in each station.
Part of the National agreement allows both rostered and non-rostered fire-fighters
being entitled to attend and be paid for incident call outs, including RTC’s. This option
appears to be being availed of to an extent across the various stations in Donegal.
The cost increases now being seen are driven in the main by both increase in hourly
rates of pay, (another element of the WRC agreement) as well as in many instances
the greater crew compliment attending. Fire service management has no discretion
in managing this outside of the National agreement framework.
It would be expected that many RTC incidents, would, like house fire incidents, have
an insurance coverage and as such it is encouraged that this option be pursued,
where available, by customers.
There is also a waiver scheme in place that, depending on personal circumstances,
may be available to certain customers. Customers in such instances should contact
Fire HQ in Letterkenny for details and application forms.
In conclusion, the net shortfall between operational costs of providing the Fire
Service and any income derived from services provided, including customer charges
and insurance coverage, has to be provided by the Council as part of it’s annual
revenue budgeting process, which generally falls to be drawn from LPT and
commercial rates income.
