Number of fire safety officers same as 1982

The number of fire-safety inspectors in Dublin has not increased in over 20 years, while outside Dublin there is no system of inspecting venues at night while "in performance", when the threat of fire is greatest.

Brian Murray, national chairman of the firefighters' committee of Siptu, described Dublin fire brigade as the "Cinderella of the emergency services in the capital", and set out a litany of shortcomings.

He said since 1983 there had been no increase in personnel or engines, just one new fire station - Blanchardstown in 1983 - and this had just one engine to serve a population of about 120,000. There was no hydrant or water mains along the entire route of the M50.

"Since the Stardust tragedy very, very little has been put in place. The Stardust tribunal report recommended there should be a fire-safety inspectorate, and seven fire-safety officers were appointed in 1982. We still have seven.

"When you think how Dublin is bursting at the seams since then - and the huge increase in the number of venues, and with increased affluence, people going out more - well it's incredible that there has been no increase in inspectors."

He said the seven fire officers spent most of their time inspecting new buildings to ensure they complied with fire-safety standards. This left little time to inspect venues while "in performance".

Jim Dunphy, chairman of the Chief Fire Officers' Association, said "at least Dublin has inspectors". In rural areas and the cities of Cork, Galway and Limerick there were typically a chief fire officer and "two or three fire officers".

"They'd be responsible for the certification of buildings, training and management, the procurement of equipment and then it would fall to them, after a full week's work, to carry out inspections of venues.

"A building may be inspected in the cold light of day, when the venue is empty, to see, for example, whether fire alarms worked, but they need to be inspected while an event is on, to see how people are being managed, whether exits are open. It is a resource and organisational issue."

Asked whether this meant large venues outside Dublin could be inspected less than once a year while "in performance", he said: "That could happen. I have no way of knowing. There is no standard inspection regime. Ad hoc is the word."

He said a large disco fire could happen again here.

However, given improvements in fire-safety standards such as a ban on flammable furnishings he "would hope we wouldn't see the kind of rapid development of the fire we saw in the Stardust".

He said the Stardust tribunal's recommendation - repeated in a 2002 report by consultants Farrell Grant Sparks - that there should be central management of fire services across the State should "be implemented . . . without further delay".

A spokesman for the Department of the Environment, which oversees local fire authorities, said all of the Stardust tribunal recommendations had "been considered and have either been implemented in full or taken into account as fire-safety policy".

There had been "massive improvements", including investment in infrastructure, equipment, better training and more staff. The legislation had also been "stepped up".

"Apart from other inspections, local fire authority officers and the Garda carried out over 5,00 inspections of over 3,000 places of public resort in 2004."

He said key recommendations of the Farrell Grant Sparks report were also coming in.