The Dail has heard that there had "enormous difficulty" were encountered when trying to fill vacancies in County Leitrim's fire service recently.
Fire personal from across the country staged a demonstration outside Leinster house on Tuesday to highlight pay and conditions among people who work in station across the country.
During a special Sinn Fein motion on retained firefighters last night, Sligo-Leitrim TD Marian Harkin told the Dail that 10 of 48 firefighters in Leitrim had left the service in recent years and it took a total of three rounds of recruitment to replace just three of the roles.
Roscommon TD Michael Fitzmaurice also highlighted issue with attracting people into becoming retained firefighters in the Shannonside region.
''In the bigger cities are full time there, they are okay, but this is in rural Ireland, it's another issue that's hitting us in rural Ireland, I see the likes of Mountbellew, Roscommon, Elphin, Strokestown, Ballaghaderreen and Ballyhaunis near us and you could have to get two fire brigades because they may not be big enough to handle one.''
