Tipperary village's fire station may close in 2026 unless new recruits come on board

The Newport fire station in Tipperary is in danger of closing this year, if it cannot resolve a four-year long recruitment soon, warn Tipperary County Council.

While national agreements required a crew of 12 firefighters long-term to allow a station to operate at full-fore, Newport has just four. Since 2022 it has proven difficult to recruit firefighters s in the town and while drops below the optimum number of 12 can be accommodated short term, due to illness, resignation or a retirement, it must be a number that’s achievable for a community to provide and maintain a fire station service.

Regardless of the low number of staff, Newport attended 60 emergency callouts in 2025 in Newport and the surrounding
areas.  The crew dealt with road traffic accidents,  bog fires, and domestic
and commercial fires.

For any person joining the fire service in Tipperary, they effectively only need to
guarantee availability on a week on/week off (flexible) basis; those on their
week on are deemed as being on 1st turnout while those on their week off as
deemed as being flexible.

While firefighters may attend as many calls as they wish, they must either attend every call on their week on or have a swap arranged with a crew member who is on their week off. They do however have to attend a two-hour
training session in fire station in evening time once per week.

Training opportunities are substantial, and the specialised training offered to every fire
fighter will see them achieve a Level 6 QQI qualification on completion of their nineweeks of basic training courses which can be spread over a two-year period.

Like the vast majority of fire stations nationally, Newport Fire Station operates on a
retained basis, ie. all firefighters carry alerters and attend the fire station when an
emergency occurs.

They must live and work as close to the station as possible but must be able to attend the fire station within eight minutes of an alert as an absolute maximum while obeying all rules of the road.

Annual earnings for a new entrant can be in the region of €35,000 to €40,000 with
more senior members earning €55,000 to €60,000, all based on current activity
levels.

Recruitment campaigns have been ongoing since 2022 and Newport specific-campaigns intensified on 2025 but very low levels of interest is evident within the Newport and surrounding community, say the council.

This has resulted in the overall numbers drop as existing members have retired and very few new people have joined.

Tipperary Fire and Rescue will have to make a decision about Newport Fire Station’s
long term viability in the coming year, and another recruitment campaign is underway
with a Community Meeting organised for the Community Hall in Newport at
6pm on Sunday April 26th 2026.

This will be followed in the weeks after with fire station open days planned for Friday May 8th from 6pm - 8pm and Sunday May 10th from midday to 4pm. Crew members will be on hand to have a chat about life
in the fire service and the opportunities that the positions offer.