It has been claimed that some 26 of Northern Ireland's fire stations are no longer "fit for purpose" – and that the 999 system is close to overload.

The Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue Service (NIFRS) has warned that while something like £15m is actually needed annually to maintain standards, they are only scheduled to get £4m.

Senior officers have even gone so far as to say that its emergency 999 call out system would not be able to respond quickly enough to emergencies within two years.

Assembly MLAs have been lobbied over its concerns about the amount of money that is expected to be allocated in the Executive's budget.

Bill Gillespie, Board Chairman of the NI Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS), said the allocation would "barely replace our fire appliances and equipment, never mind look towards investment in fire stations and our 999 command and control system".

"Undoubtedly, very difficult decisions will have to be made in relation to the provision of emergency cover for the people of Northern Ireland," he said.

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Mr Gillespie said the service might have to consider reducing emergency cover provision by removing some full-time firefighters from Ballymena, Lisburn, Lurgan, Bangor and Newry.

Registering its serious concerns, NIFRS has issued a formal paper to all MLAs outlining in detail the impact of the proposed allocation of revenue and capital for fire and rescue services in the Draft Budget and Draft Investment Strategy.

Mr Gillespie continued: “We have 26 Fire Stations that are simply no longer fit for a modern fire and rescue service and many are landlocked in congested town centres across Northern Ireland, impacting on our ability to meet our all important emergency response times.

"We need to urgently replace these 26 Fire Stations and relocate them outside of town centres to ensure that we can respond to emergencies as quickly as possible," he said.

Most worryingly, he said: “The old technology in our 999 Regional Control Centre will become obsolete in 2009/2010 and it is absolutely critical that it is replaced.

"This cannot happen with the current allocation of funding. It is interesting that only last week the Scottish Government announced an investment of £50m in their 999 Command & Control Centres and the Government in London is funding nine new Control Centres for England.

"NIFRS has been consistently funded 20% less than comparable fire and rescue services in England, Scotland and Wales," he said, noting that NIFRS also wants to continue to be ‘a highly achieving service’, the top rating given to the organisation by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Fire Services following the recent inspection.

Concluding, he said: "The NIFRS Board would reassure the public that whatever funding is allocated to NIFRS, we will do our very best to preserve front line emergency response.”

(BMcC/KMcA)