Minister for the Environment John Gormley is awaiting the outcome of three separate investigations into the tragedy in Bray, Co Wicklow, when two part-time firefighters died, before making any changes in relation to the fire service.
Mr Gormley was speaking in the Dáil during a Labour Party Private Members' motion calling for the introduction of full-time fire services for areas of high population such as Bray.
The motion, introduced by Labour's environment and local government spokesman Ciaran Lynch, also highlighted the "failure of the Government to implement in full the recommendations of the Farrell Grant Sparks Review of Fire Safety and Fire Services in Ireland", which were issued in 2002.
Family members of Brian Murray and Mark O'Shaughnessy, the two firefighters who died last month, were in the public gallery, as were fire service colleagues, during last night's debate.
Mr Gormley, who said he had met members of the Bray fire crew and would be meeting them again, also offered to meet the two firefighters' families if they wished. The Minister said there had been calls for an independent investigation into the tragedy.
"Three investigations are under way - an Garda Síochána, the Health and Safety Authority and Wicklow County Council. I have asked each of the authorities to make the findings of its investigation available to my department and will consider any necessary change arising from the outcome of the above investigations in the work of supporting and developing fire services in my role as Minister. I believe, therefore, that it would be important to await the outcome of the investigations."
The Minister promised to "act speedily on any recommendations that emerge".
Mr Lynch, who backed the call by Bray firefighters for an independent investigation into the tragedy, also called for a national fire authority to be established. Mr Lynch said that in his own county, Cork, "the largest in Ireland, there is only one full-time fire service which serves the city and immediate regions by agreement. The rest of the county is dependent upon a retained service. Mayo, the second largest county in Ireland, while being a control centre for the western region, has no full-time fire service at all."
He said that since the 2002 review of the fire services was published "we have had four ministers in the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, three in previous administrations and now the Minister, Deputy Gormley, in the present one".
Liz McManus (Lab, Wicklow) said the issue of a fulltime fire service in Bray was not new. There had been other fire deaths. "The deaths in the Cassidy family and in 2001 the deaths of Teresa and Christopher Cahill in particular.
"What was inexplicable to most people was the fact that these fires occurred in a housing estate just across the road from the fire station."
