'Lives were put at risk' during Kilkenny fuel protests

A Kilkenny-based emergency first responder has said that lives were put at risk during the fuel protests last weekend.

In an interview with the Kilkenny People, the member of Kilkenny County Fire and Rescue Service outlined how he felt 'lives had been put at risk' during the fuel protests.

"The Local Government Management Agency (LGMA) issued a statement to every fire chief and told them they had to reduce the callouts which is done a PDA (pre-determined attendance) system.

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"They were saying that they weren't going to put people's lives at risk and they actually did, they stopped us going to cardiac arrests and the fire alarm activations, unless it actually was something, they wouldn't send us to it. Sometimes we do go and there actually is a fire and they stopped us doing that, they started putting lives at risk."

He explained that members of Kilkenny County Fire Service are all trained emergency first responders and often attend cardiac arrests.

"The ambulances can be so busy these days we cover cardiac arrests as well," he said adding that he was unaware if there had been any cardiac arrests incidents over the weekend as the Fire Service were stopped from attending them.

The measures were put in place by the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA) last weekend and were removed since Sunday evening.

"They retracted everything, so we are back to normal," he said adding that he had no issue with the protesters but with the LGMA.

"I have nothing against the protesters. In fairness to the protesters, there was two days in a row there, they let trucks leave for fuel for frontline workers, the likes of the guards, the ambulance and the fire service so there was no reason for them to do any cuts, it was the Fire Service themselves that did it, the LGMA and they actually put people's lives in danger doing it as far as I am concerned.

"The protesters were letting through emergency vehicles, they were letting supply of fuel go out for the emergency vehicles so it was a cut that the LGMA did themselves that they shouldn't have done.

A spokesperson for Kilkenny County Council said that in order to conserve fuel and in line with national policy Kilkenny County Council Fire and Rescue Service implemented a revised Pre-Determined Attendance (PDA) from Friday (April 10 at 4pm) until Sunday (April 12 at noon).

"During that time there were four different medical calls (ambulance/assist calls) all of which were responded to as normal. There were no automatic fire alarm activations during that time," added the spokesperson.