Tipperary fire station faces closure if new recruits cannot be found – ‘I can’t see why people don’t join’
A Tipperary fire station is in danger of closing by the end of this year if more members are not secured.
Tipperary Fire and Rescue Service have said that the fire station in Newport has been struggling to recruit more staff for a number of years, but that now the issue had reached a crisis point.
"Tipperary County Council has advised that Newport Fire Station is in danger of closing in 2026 if it cannot resolve the recruitment issue that has been affecting the station since 2022,” a statement from the fire service said.
"Recruitment campaigns have been ongoing since 2022 and Newport specific campaigns intensified in 2025 but very low levels of interest are evident within the Newport and surrounding community. This has resulted in the overall numbers drop as existing members have retired and very few new people have joined,” Tipperary Fire and Rescue said.
Speaking to the Irish Independent, Newport Fire Station’s sub-officer James McInerney said that despite being called to attend some difficult incidents, the job can be very rewarding.
"I can’t see why people don’t join it, because it really is a very rewarding job, and you get to help somebody,” he said.
"You are going to have bad calls where the outcome isn’t so good, like you might be called to a road traffic collision where there’s a fatality, but there’s counselling there for anybody if they need it,” he said.
Newport Fire Station, like most fire stations across Tipperary, works on a retained basis, meaning that firefighters operate on an on-call basis, being free to have another job.
Firefighters in Newport operate on a week on / week off basis, with firefighters expected to be able to respond to calls within eight minutes. Firefighters must respond to all call-outs during their on week, but can choose whether to respond during their off week.
Firefighters are paid a base wage, with extra payments for call-outs and training activities.
The basic rate of pay for a new retained firefighter in the first year is €16,852, before any training or call-out fees are added, but James says that if members attend all their call-outs and go to all the training, the real figure is closer to €30,000, before tax.
Despite the relatively low starting salary, James said that it is in line with the public sector pay arrangement, and that it can easily rise the longer a person is with the fire service.
"We can’t do any more with the money side of things… but it goes up in increments,” he added.
Firefighters in Newport train every Monday night, and receive €102 for each training evening, as well as getting paid by the hour for each call-out they respond to. As well as that, if members wish to get their truck license to be able to drive the fire trucks, this is paid for by the fire service.
Mr McInerney said that the town’s proximity to employment opportunities in Limerick may be a factor in the struggle to attract new members.
"There’s full-time employment in the likes of Vistakon, Edwards, Analog Devices in Limerick, they’re all paying fantastic money, they’re on their 9-5 shifts, or they have shifts where they start at 7am and are out by 3pm,” he said.
"I think the struggle with Newport is that we’re so close to the city and employment in the city. I’ve been saying for long enough that the thing that will fix the fire brigade in Ireland is a recession because employment will be short and that will be the only employment in the area,” James said.
The service offers lots of training opportunities, Mr McInerney said, which is another bonus to joining.
"New recruits now get an accredited certificate, I think it’s a level eight, so they’re trained up fully in Tipperary and if a full-time position opens up in Cork or Limerick or Dublin, their certificate will be recognised within that service as well,” he said.
"But there's lots of things within the brigade itself, like myself, I did a college course through the fire service, I’ve done a dietician and nutrition course with Limerick Institute of Technology (now the Technological University of the Shannon), so there’s lots of things you can do through the fire service,” James said.
“There’s lots of other opportunities as well within the career, you can go up the ladder. I know firefighters that started in Tipperary that are now assistant chief fire officers in other counties, so there’s lots of progress you can make with it,” he said.
The station handles between 60 to 70 calls a year on average, but calls aren’t guaranteed on the officer’s weeks on.
"I’m tied down full-time to the station because I’m the only truck driver, so I can’t go anywhere. When I do go away, the lads are limited, and the station officer, PJ, he’s in a predicament because what does he do? Does he go out in the van or the truck? He can drive the truck, but he’s the incident commander and you’re not really supposed to drive, you’re supposed to be able to prepare your plan when you go to an incident and getting all the information,” James explained.
“It’s going to be a battle to get staff, but the fact that they’re talking about closing it, people that are on the fence might actually come over and try out for it,” he added.
The ideal scenario for anyone hoping to join the team at Newport Fire Station would be someone who has another job that they can work around being a firefighter, such as a farmer or someone with flexible hours, James said.
"It would be ideal to have a job outside the brigade, but if you’re working, you could be on-call this week, and then schedule your work for your week off from the fire station,” he said.
For anyone who is thinking of joining the fire service, James said that the station is having a public meeting in Newport Community Centre on Sunday, April 26 at 6pm.
"I think for the people who are thinking about it, come to the meeting. The chief fire officer will be there, so any questions people have, he’ll be able to answer,” he said.
The fire station is also planning to host two open days on May 8 from 6pm to 8pm, and May 10 from 12pm to 4pm.
"People are also welcome to come to the open day, they can see the equipment and they’ll get to lift the equipment and talk to the firefighters, and we’ll have a couple of female firefighters from other stations here as well,” James explained.
Currently, Newport doesn’t have any female firefighters, which is something they would like to change.
"Women don’t tend to go for the fire service, but they’re badly needed,” he added.
Despite having a current available crew of three, well short of the station’s target of 12, James said that even to bring that number up to six or eight would make a huge difference.
"If we got it to 12, we could have six on and six off, but at the moment, we’re looking at getting it up to six, which would be three on and three off, or even eight, to have four on and four off,” he said.
Firefighters are also trained first responders, able to respond to serious medical emergencies before other emergency crews can get there, which would be a devastating loss to Newport if the station were forced to close.
"We’re all trained emergency first responders, so the fire service could be utilised better, but just to get the staff numbers up is the thing,” he said.
Even with the unpredictability of the job, James said that he loves getting to help people, and he also loves training in the next generation of firefighters.
"I think it’s a great job, it’s a rewarding job, I love it. It’s good to be able to help people, and everybody in the town knows you, so they know if something goes wrong, that you’re coming.
"My favourite part of the job is going up practicing on Monday night and being able to help people. I like to pass on my experience to people, like one of the new people that just joined us,” he said.
Tipperary Fire and Rescue Service have said that if staffing levels in Newport don’t rise by the end of this year, they will be forced to make a difficult decision about the future of the station.