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

I would like to apologise for being late but I was in the Dáil for Leader's Questions. A lot of our remarks will be saved for management who, in my opinion, bear the responsibility for the way in which the service is being operated, rather than the staff at the front line. I appreciate the role of the staff organisations in highlighting a lot of the difficulties which the changes have caused for their members and the broader consequences of same.

While I do not want to put the witnesses on the spot, I wish to use an example which I will also be using with management later. There is a family in the Visitors Gallery today who were victims of the cutbacks; the family of Wayne McQuillan from Drogheda. Wayne was stabbed in Drogheda on New Year's Eve last and an ambulance arrived at the scene 32 minutes after the initial call was made. A few minutes before that, local gardaí decided to put him into a Garda car and drive him to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital. The tragic sequence of events in that case is an example of the consequences of the cuts. This young man was stabbed at approximately 1.40 a.m. and an ambulance was called for within minutes. The ambulance was dispatched from Ardee, approximately 20 miles away. The ambulance was called seven or eight times before gardaí decided to drive him to the hospital. Wayne's parents are now having to deal with losing their son as well as with the thought that, were it not for the cuts, he might not have died. Very bravely, they are trying to turn their own personal tragedy into something positive. They do not want this to happen to another family. It is very important that we point out that the cutbacks have real-life consequences. It is the McQuillan's impression that it is not just a case of the ambulance cuts per se but also that the old system that was in place was far more effective in terms of responding to crises. What is the opinion of the witnesses of that analysis?

We heard of a case last week of difficulties in dealing with a traffic collision in Portlaoise. The airways in Kildare were awash with commentary over the weekend about the fact that there was no ambulance cover in Athy because management refused to provide overtime cover due the cutbacks. Is that the case? In Portlaoise, it appears to be the case that a staff member was out on long-term sick leave and a second ambulance was called away to Kildare. The stretching of resources appears to be having serious consequences. Is it a regular occurrence that the service is grappling with low numbers of staff while trying to keep budgets in check, resulting in management decisions which are leading to serious situations?

Several other Deputies have referred to the situation in Northern Ireland and I would also cite the example of Scotland, which has only a marginally higher population than ours but which has four times more ambulance personnel.

Scotland, which is not awash with cash, has twice as many ambulances. I presume we need to be heading towards that as well. Maybe I will leave it at that.