The League of Portuguese Firefighters (LBP) considered this Thursday the funding of 32.6 million euros for volunteer firefighters insufficient planned in the State Budget for next year, highlighting that the increase is lower than inflation.
Any increase below inflation is not acceptable, since it would worsen the situation of lack of financing of the associations,” the president of the LBP, António Nunes, told Lusa.
The State Budget proposal for 2024, which the Government delivered on Tuesday to the Assembly of the Republic, establishes that volunteer firefighters will have funding of around 32.6 million euros, 900,000 euros more than this year.
António Nunes highlighted that this value “It falls very short”despite the increase of 900 thousand euros compared to 2023.
The president of the League also stressed that the firefighters “do not accept” that in 2024 humanitarian associations will receive “below the value of inflation.”
António Nunes considered the budget insufficient, because the calculations are always made according to the inflation expected for 2024, but “at a minimum” they should be made according to this year’s inflation.
The official also recalled that, since 2015, when the new financing system for humanitarian associations of volunteer firefighters was created, “there has never been monitoring or evaluation” of the criteria for distributing funds, which led to corporations ” lose funding.” LBP advocates for another financing model for fire departments.
In addition to the 32.6 million euros, the budget of the Ministry of the Interior for next year also foresees that humanitarian associations of volunteer firefighters can receive 53.2 million euros within the framework of the Special Device for Extinguishing Rural Fires (SAY ), amount intended exclusively for the payment of expenses related to fire extinguishing.
Source: Observadora
