Martin Should Start Tenure By Fulfilling Promises on Clonakilty Fire Station
Issued : Tuesday 1 February, 2011
In 2007, Batt O Keefe promised substantial funding for the upgrading of fire stations across the Country. At the time Clonakilty Fire Station was to be prioritised. Four years on in 2011, we see only temporary repairs being made to an archaic building to allow our Fire Service to continue to operate.
This is another legacy of unfulfilled government promises. These promises always seem to be given at the same time in the election cycle but there never seems to be any delivery and follow through. It’s a legacy that will forever be seen in every ghost estate, every dole queue, and every airport.
This stop-gap solution of “repairs”, which are costing €28,000, is a short selling of our firemen, our town and it is a disgrace to the service being provided by one of the integral emergency services. These temporary repairs are being made to bring this building up to health and safety standards and not to make it a future proof centre of operations. It is yet another sticky plaster over the gaping wound of our defective national infrastructure.
I call on the new leader of Fianna Fáil, Michéal Martin, to honour the pledge made by his former colleague in Government and provide Clonakilty with no less than what was promised. If Fianna Fail wish to find forgiveness with the electorate and, in particular, with the people of Clonakilty, it must now finally invest in the long term emergency services that saved millions of euro in damages during the recent weather conditions and saved countless lives in the course of its work.
ENDS
Cllr 
