The DUP’s Simon Hamilton has picked up on an interesting and rather depressing point. He has discovered, in a written answer from Michael McGimpsey that 40% of the Fire Service budget is spent on tackling malicious fires. Apparently £150 million has been spent on tackling 70,000 non accidental fires in the past 5 years.
Interviewed on Radio Ulster this morning, Mr. Hamilton said that the comparative figures for the rest of the UK show a significantly lower level of malicious fires. Exactly what the comparative level is would be interesting as would the number of prosecutions here for malicious fires.
We are reader supported. Donate to keep Slugger lit!
For over 20 years, Slugger has been an independent place for debate and new ideas. We have published over 40,000 posts and over one and a half million comments on the site. Each month we have over 70,000 readers. All this we have accomplished with only volunteers we have never had any paid staff.
Slugger does not receive any funding, and we respect our readers, so we will never run intrusive ads or sponsored posts. Instead, we are reader-supported. Help us keep Slugger independent by becoming a friend of Slugger. While we run a tight ship and no one gets paid to write, we need money to help us cover our costs.
If you like what we do, we are asking you to consider giving a monthly donation of any amount, or you can give a one-off donation. Any amount is appreciated.
