There are calls for a special meeting of Tipperary County Council to discuss the current dispute within the retained fire service.
12 independent representatives on the local authority have submitted a request to the local authority to convene the meeting to discuss what measures and contingencies are in place and what will be put in place.
The group is also asking that a delegation of firefighters should attend the meeting and give their perspective on matters and point out some of the problems they are facing.
Ger Morris is a sub officer at Nenagh Fire Station – he told Tipp Today earlier that management in the service simply do not realise the sacrifice made by firefighters.
“Sometimes we should apologise to our families for what we put them through by being a retained firefighter. The missed birthdays, the missed Christmas dinner, the missed occasion that we can go somewhere – they’re in the service as much as we are but the management don’t just seem to get that because they were never in the service.
“The management goes from Chief Fire Officers, Senior Assistant, Assistant Chief and Prevention – someone in their right mind years ago decided all engineers can run the fire service. We’re part of the local authority, we get our money from the local authority but the management run the service after that.”
