Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

We sometimes hear about the need for those in power to take action before it is too late. For Wayne McQuillan who was stabbed in Drogheda in New Year's Eve, it is already too late because it took the ambulance 32 minutes to get to him after the initial call. The Minister of State may be aware that his distraught family attended the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children when we heard from representatives from the ambulance service earlier this year. It is a bit rich for Fianna Fáil to clap our paramedics on the back when the cuts to the forefront of this were begun on its watch. Nonetheless, the reality is that we have a dysfunctional ambulance service which is undermining the quality of the work put in by our very dedicated paramedics on the front line. Against that backdrop, the suggestion that Dublin Fire Brigade would be removed from administering that service is absolutely ludicrous when it is coming to light that HSE mismanagement has been responsible for much of the problems that exist in the ambulance service. In my constituency, a HSE ambulance driver told me how they received a new ambulance vehicle which had 70,000 miles on the clock. He reported how six crew members turned up for a shift with only two ambulances to put them to work. Obviously, "Prime Time" elevated many of these stories. The proof shows that Dublin Fire Brigade, which covers 40% of national calls on 7% of the national budget, has the best response times in the country. If anything, we should be holding back and looking at the idea put forward of a national capacity review. In my opinion, the outcome of that will be that the ambulance model that has been adopted in other countries is the best for patient safety and that there should be no undermining of that service in the short term because other people's lives, like that of Wayne McQuillan, will be forfeited as a result.

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