Fire Service Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-02 ============================================================ Mike Kennelly (FG), Labour Panel I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach. I welcome the Minister of State this morning. I thank the Cathaoirleach of the Seanad for accepting this serious Commencement matter. My ask this morning is for an extension of the retirement age for retained firefighters. I ask that we urgently amend the regulations governing the retirement age for retained firefighters across Ireland, allowing those who remain medically and physically fit to continue serving until the State pension age of 66. There are approximately 3,300 firefighters serving across Ireland, with more than 2,000 serving as retained firefighters. They staff the vast majority of our 217 fire stations and are the backbone of the fire service in rural and regional Ireland. They respond to fires, road traffic collisions, flooding and other emergencies, while balancing their roles with work and family commitments. They provide an invaluable front-line service to communities across the country. Under the current regulations, retained firefighters can remain in service beyond the age of 55 if they pass annual medical and fitness assessments, but they must retire at 62. That means many are forced to leave up to four years before they qualify for the State pension. The Government acknowledged recently that there were challenges with recruitment and retention when it increased the retirement age from 60 to 62 in 2024. However, those challenges remain. Fire services, in particular in rural Ireland, continue to struggle to recruit and retain personnel. Requiring experienced firefighters to retire at 62 only makes that situation a lot worse. This proposal is not about lowering standards. Those wishing to remain in service already undergo annual medical and fitness assessments and can only continue with the approval of their employing fire authority and local authority, for example, Kerry County Council and so forth. The safeguards are already there. The proposal simply extends the existing fitness-based approach to the State pension age of 66. There is also a clear issue of fairness. Retained firefighters can be required to retire up to four years before they qualify for the State pension despite being fit, capable and willing to continue serving. This gap has to be addressed. There is a real urgency here. Firefighters are approaching their 62nd birthdays in the coming weeks and months and face compulsory retirement under the current regulations. If the Government intends to make this change, it must act now. I am asking for the Government to introduce an immediate pause or freeze on compulsory retirements at age 62 while the necessary regulatory changes are progressed. It would be deeply unfair if experienced firefighters were forced to retire only for the rules to change shortly afterwards. This is a very sensible and very practical reform. It would help retain experienced firefighters, strengthen emergency response, support rural fire services and align retirement with the State pension age, while maintaining the highest standards of safety through annual medical and fitness assessments, which are ongoing. I am asking the Minister of State today to commit to amending the regulations to allow retained firefighters to serve until the age of 66 where they continue to meet the required medical and fitness standards and to introduce an immediate freeze so that no firefighter is disadvantaged while this change is being considered. These men and women have dedicated their lives to protecting our communities and if they remain fit to serve, we should allow them to continue serving. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-07-02/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:09+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-07-02