Hacketstown fire training centre secures €4m for major development

CARLOW County Fire and Rescue Service has secured €4 million in capital funding to expand and modernise the Hacketstown Training &d Development Centre, it was announced at a Tullow municipal district meeting.

The funding, allocated by the National Directorate for Fire & Emergency Management (NDFEM), will finance a number of projects to provide modern facilities to meet training needs for firefighters across Ireland.

The announcement comes after the training centre recorded its busiest year on record, with over 1,200 firefighters completing training courses over 346 days in 2025. Some 133 days have already been booked for 2026.

Acting chief fire officer Ben Woodhouse said the funding followed 18 months of preliminary project appraisal, research of other UK training centres and preparing a business case application.

“I’m delighted to announce this great news for our training centre at Hacketstown and the local community,” said Mr Woodhouse. “The Hacketstown Training and Development Centre has become a leading training facility for Ireland.” A key element of the development will be Ireland’s first fully enclosed carbonaceous fire training facility with smoke capture, management and filtration. This will significantly reduce smoke emissions, CO2 emissions and improve health and safety for learners and trainers.

Fire officer Woodhouse noted that while carbonaceous fire training is essential to prepare firefighters for real-world scenarios, it currently impacts the locality due to smoke travelling across the town.

“Through my research and the awareness of the latest impacts of our training activities, it is evident that we need to develop our facilities to not only improve quality of training for firefighters to meet modern-day challenges in fire service operations but also to improve the local environment for the people who live, work, socialise and attend education facilities in the vicinity of the training centre,” he said.

The development will also include a new training tower, site perimeter fencing, an underground confined space training facility, conversion of a training building to artificial heat non-carbonaceous via LPG, welfare facilities, car parking, site lighting and proposed buildings to house training fire appliances, security and administration.

Fire officer Woodhouse outlined the centre’s evolution since 2000, when it started with three shipping containers in a field to deliver training for Carlow firefighters.

“It is now the busiest training centre in Ireland, excluding the OBI in Dublin,” he said. “It’s the only training centre in the country that can deliver two, sometimes three, courses simultaneously.” This year the centre has trained firefighters from fire authorities across Ireland – from Sligo and Donegal to Cork and Clare – as well as Dublin Airport Fire & Rescue Service, the Irish Defence Forces and the Irish Air Corps.

Courses delivered include QQI firefighting skills, QQI breathing apparatus, QQI compartment fire behaviour, pump operator, confined spaces, working at heights, road traffic collision, emergency first responder and cardiac first responder training.

The project will now enter planning, consultation and procurement processes.