Except that the household charge has been widely evaded

so is it going to be another case of prove you paid your household charge then we come help you out of your burning building? i’m sorry but every person has the right to these services even they didn’t pay the charge.

I was only pointing out that if this is as you say intended to be funded out of the household charge then there is only a little over half of that funding available because so many won’t pay it.

So Gagsy
You are now speaking as a hench man for the government ….First it was the Student grants were threatened to be with held, and that was declared illegal. Now you are saying that fire services will be with held due to the fact that people are exercising their democratic and constitutional right to oppose this unfair immoral and unjust tax on the home ….
Dear oh dear oh dear ! ! !

Janey Mac!

Again,,,, was only pointing out in relation to your original comment about the household charge funding this stuff that that funding is only half of what it should be because so many aren’t paying it.
Thats all, so cool the jets.

And to pre-empt what I expect your next follow up might be, the above should be in no way construed to suggest that I think that those who don’t pay the HHC should be set on fire.

i know where you are coming from but, even if only 200 people paid it, it is more than what they had. if the fire brigade came out to my house to put a chimney fire out i have to pay them, unless this has changed.

If the fire service attend your house for a fire or indeed your car at an accident you are liable to a charge from the county council. This charge is either covered in total or up to a cut off point by your home or motor insurance policy. Have a look at your policy documents for fire service charges.

Gagsy i have no problem with not expressing your opinion, we are having a healthy debate :-) i know where you are coming from and i respect that. the money has to come from somewhere but even if they did get everyone to pay the household charge i do believe this conversation would be taking place.

thanks for that Dave, so either way they are still getting money out of it, so where is it going? does that money go back to the firemen who need it?

Sorry Dani, I thought the hysterical comment from Eileen was from you too.

I don’t know about the finances end of it but I’d assume any money the council gets (from insurance companies or the people if they’ve no insurance on the house) goes into council coffers. Part time firemen are given a small retainer by the council each year and are then only paid when they are on a call or scheduled training. The reward definitely isn’t worth both the risk involved and the family life impact of being constantly called on and not allowed be a certain time/distance away from the station. They’re job should be made easier not harder.

No problem Gagsy.

Gagsy
The money does not go back to the fire men !
It may go back to the county /city council ….
And I am noit being hysterical at all. but I am actually having at the double act you and
DaniL are putting on show for us . Keep up the good work .And No I will still not be
held to ransom to pay that HHC :-)

As far as I know the government has withheld funding to city / county councils and this shortfall was to be made up by the collection of the household charge. As the household charge hasn’t been collected in full as the government – naively – thought it would be the funding to the local authorities and therefore the fire brigade has been cut by between 5 and 15 percent

Margret
The hhc was never going to go to the County Councils …
It was always going to central gov and then to unsecured bond holders ,…

** Margaret ( apologies on mis spelling your name ! )

What money doesn’t go back to firemen?
I thinking you might be tilting at windmills. I only commented on someone else’s linking of the hhc to the firemen.

The collection of the household charge or non collection of it by the councils is directly effecting how much funding they are being given by the government. Basically the more household charge they collect the more funding they get

Hit, nail, head ….comes to mind ! This is just another backhanded scare tactic. The money for local services is being bundled up as we speak to be shipped out on OCT 1st to more unsecured bond holders !

Oh something i forgot to say is that the vast majority of Senior Fire Officers in Ireland have no firefighting experience , they have never been firefighters. all that is required to become a Senior Officer in the fire service (not counting Dublin or other cities) is a degree. This degree does not have to be relevant to fire fighting or the fire service. It used to be that the degree must be in structural engineering but that has been changed. So what you end up with is Senior Officers who have never actually been on a fire call , seen the devistation on a home owner when their house has been destroyed by flooding making the decision, usually by phone, on whether or not to send a brigade out to save a home from flooding.

It’s madness that somebody can be refused a response because a manager either experienced or not decides its not appropriate to send the fire service. I regularly deal with retained and full time firefighters and aside from some inter service banter you might get, they are always professional, knowledgable and willing to put themselves out for people. Hieght of respect to john and his colleagues.

What?