Council moves to allay concerns over Letterkenny fire service staffing
Concerns about low staffing levels and morale raised by councillor
Donegal County Council has moved to allay concerns about the level of staffing of the fire service in Letterkenny after the issue was raised by a local councillor.
Sinn Féin councillor Gerry McMonagle has claimed morale is low in the service and understaffing is impacting on the fire service units in neighbouring towns which have to provide cover when the Letterkenny service is active. He told the March meeting of the Letterkenny-Milford Municipal District this week that the fire service has been reduced from two teams to one and to just seven personnel.
In a statement, Donegal County Council said it wished to clarify that the Letterkenny fire service has a complement of 15 firefighters “with numbers varying from time to time due to leave, training, vacancies etc”.
The council said recruitment campaigns take place as the need arises and it wishes to assure the public “that Letterkenny Fire Brigade responds, and will continue to respond to requests for fire brigade assistance”.