Retained firefighters blacked out all communications with management today, apart from sharing life-saving information.

Since July, some 2,000 retained firefighters across the country have been on the picket lines.

They are striking after voting to reject a Labour Court recommendation on pay and working hours, but are covering life-threatening emergencies.

The Labour Court had recommended that the retainer be increased by between 24 per cent and 32.7 per cent.

Under the proposals, a firefighter on an annual retainer of 8,870 euro would see it rise to 11,769 euro - but it was rejected.

Their union, SIPTU, says there is a recruitment and retention crisis in the service, meaning many firefighters are unable to take their leave entitlements due to staff shortages.

Now, they have “gone dark” since 8 o'clock this morning, providing no internal communications other than life-saving information.

Closures

SIPTU Division Organiser, Karan O'Loughlin, says if the blackout is not responded to, firefighters will start to close stations.

"If there's no intervention by this time next week, then additional stations will start to close," she said. "Right now 50% –over 10 stations – all over the country are closed at any one time, and as of next Saturday, if the dispute continues, that number will increase."

Ms O'Loughlin said remuneration for people joining the service needs to be sufficient.

"In particular, that it focuses on the entry-level pieces to encourage people to join the service," she said.

"This is one of the problems, that the numbers are so low now that some stations have to be taken off the run anyway, even if there was never a strike."

Response

As the strike moves into week 10, Ms O'Loughlin is shocked by the lack of response from Government.

"We're moving into week 10 – for essential service workers, that's appalling," she said.

"The Government were clapping these people on the back during COVID saying how great they were and how essential they were – when they tried to get paid properly, then they get ignored and that's just not acceptable."