Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I wish to focus on the matter of HIQA response times which are fundamental to this motion. Response time targets were set in 2010 for HIQA. Incredibly, those targets were laid down by a Government that, extraordinarily, did not seem to have the first clue about the capacity of the ambulance service to deliver on those very targets.

In other words, the then Government, including Deputy Kelleher, the Minister for Health and HIQA imposed targets without any kind of detailed analysis of the service's ability to meet the very targets they set down in 2010. It was what might be described as a Hail Mary pass to the ambulance service, hit and hope, with no clue as to the number of emergency vehicles, personnel or equipment available to meet the very targets they were determined to hold the HSE and the national ambulance service to. This is a damning indictment of the system presided over by the movers of this motion. It is yet another example of back-of-the-envelope style governance from Fianna Fáil, which Deputy Kelleher turned into a fine art.

The motion appears to have been scribbled down on the back of a cigarette packet. It implies that there has been a reduction in funding to the national ambulance service in recent times, whereas in fact since 2012 there has been a marked increase in the resources available to the service. Extra money is available - up by €9 million on 2012.

Neither is there any acknowledgement in the motion of an important development in the ambulance service which will take place this year. That is the migration from the blunt metric of measuring ambulance response times to a system of measuring actual clinical outcomes. Bizarrely, under the current set of indicators, if a patient subsequently dies but the ambulance has arrived on time - and within the target response time set down by HIQA - that is considered to be a good call. Nowhere else would this be considered acceptable, so I am glad that is set to change.

The motion conveniently ignores the fact that a full-scale capacity review of the ambulance service across the State has been initiated. I understand that the review, which will take six months to complete, is under way. Fianna Fáil abjectly failed to have one done before response time targets were introduced, yet now they conveniently choose to ignore the fact that the capacity review is under way at all. It has not been mentioned in the motion.

The ambulance service is unrecognisable now compared to ten or 15 years ago. The staff are extremely well trained to top international standards. It is about time we had that capacity review and I am pleased it is under way. If extra resources are required, I am sure a way will be found to secure them for the staff and citizens who rely on the service. If the service needs to be reorganised, I am certain that staff and management will respond accordingly.

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