There are no full time firefighters in Kildare, only retained.. There's a good few Kildare lads in the Dublin fire brigade, but they wont be recruiting for a long time as they are only half way through the current panel, which will probably take another couple of years to run through..
Davyjones post was quite accurate even for Dublin, but here there's a panel of 150 made up from around 8,000 applicants.. Current recession and all that, you could be expecting this figure to be closer to 25,000 applicants next time around..
As Darth Vader said, Mountain rescue, st. johns, civil defence, fca, are all added bonus's for the interview, throw in a trade too and your well on your way.. But, as i said, i doubt there'll be a recruitment drive in any county for a while..