370. Deputy Joe Cooney asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of retained firefighters serving each fire station in County Clare compared with the approved establishment. [54529/26]

A September 2023 Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) agreement with retained firefighters provides for a national standard level of 12 crew per retained fire station. This rise in crewing numbers equates to an approximate increase of 20% in retained firefighter numbers from the pre-WRC agreement position.

The recruitment of additional retained firefighters is helping to build higher levels of capacity and resilience in the retained fire service. These measures strengthen both the response capability and fire safety across the communities served by a network of 201 retained fire stations.

Under Section 159 of the Local Government Act 2001, each Chief Executive is responsible for the staffing and organisational arrangements necessary for carrying out the functions of the local authority for which they are responsible. My Department oversees strategic workforce planning for the local government sector, including the monitoring of local government sector employment levels. To this end, my Department gathers aggregate quarterly data on staff numbers in each local authority on a whole time equivalent basis.

However, granular data, in terms of the number or grade of staff assigned to specific work areas in each local authority including in the fire service, is not collected and consequently is not available in my Department. The relevant information would be available from the local authorities concerned.