Retained firefighters across the country are to be consulted about the possible escalation of their industrial relations dispute.
SIPTU claim there is a lack of political will to engage meaningfully to resolve the dispute and say the action will have to be escalated
Meetings with the country's 2,000 retained firefighters will take place over the next week.
Crews are currently only responding to life-threatening incidents, while just half the country's stations are open at any one time.
Speaking to RedFM News, Station Officer at Midleton Fire Station, Mark Sinclair describes morale:
"It's not great. As I said before, every firefighter that is serving at the moment all joined up to serve their communities. It's all locally based people working for their communities. And everyone joined to serve the community where we live. And it's heart-breaking that this is happening. But something has to change to get new staff in because there are stations where people have zero time off".
