Ms Laverne McGuinness:

In response to Deputy Ó Caoláin's question regarding the change programme, the change programme we commenced in 2012 related to the having a single national control centre and this is in line with international best practice. That control centre will be based in Tallaght. It is ready and will be opened in 2015 and there will be a resilience site in Ballyshannon. When the centre is open it would be useful if the members of the committee were to visit it. It is a state-of-the-art facility and it will change the model of operation. When the computer system is in place, it will be possible to monitor where every ambulance is in the country and to deploy from the centre the most appropriate and nearest ambulance to where it is required. The centre has all the equipment that a modern service would require. That invitation is extended to the committee to visit the centre when it is opened.

The other ten strategic priorities were identified during the course of 2013 and the Deputy mentioned one in particular relating to the capacity review. Very few companies have the skills set to carry out a capacity review. One had not been carried out in the ambulance service previously. Given our rural geographics, the purpose of the review was to examine where best our ambulance stations should be placed. The stations has been in place for a significant number of years and given the changes in demographics and movement in members of the population, the review was to assess if any changes needed to be made.

We have put in place a number of intermediate care vehicles. In 2012 we had 11 intermediate care vehicles, which are the vehicles used in hospital transfers and now we have 56. We needed to identify how many of those vehicles were needed. We did not have the expertise in our service to address that. We also needed to identify how many additional ambulances would be needed. The response time targets had been set down by HIQA. A preplanned capacity review had not been carried out to determine the number of ambulances that would be needed to meet those targets and the number of paramedics and advanced paramedics that would be needed to provide that level of response. That was why we carried out the capacity review.

That review will be completed by the end of December this year and we will have it before Christmas. I have provided executive summary of it to the committee. The Lightfoot summary is the executive summary of the capacity review. It specifically deals with the 7 minutes and 59 seconds first-response time and signals that the 75% response rate target is not achievable and that to achieve a 64% response time target would require very significant investment in terms of 290 wholetime equivalents, extra ambulances, extra intermediate care vehicles. The executive summary provided by Lightfoot divides the country and indicates that some countries are more rural based than others and that there are minor urban areas. That will result in a variation in response times, even with the investment of most significant of resources. When the capacity review is finalised we expect we will able to identify the blackspots. We have already identified there are significant blackspots in the west, in Mulranny, Tuam and Loughglynn. We are staffing those and they will be opened in 2015 and on a 24 hour, seven days a week basis to address the needs and concerns there but there may be other areas there that also need to be addressed. That was the purpose of the capacity review. That will be published and will be available to the committee.

A number of concerns were raised about the fleet and the Deputy correctly stated it is an ageing fleet. We got extra money in 2014 and put in place 36 new ambulances. Obviously, we would like to have much more money to replace them every year if that was possible but it is not possible within the financial constraints prevailing. We also put in place two critical care vehicles. It is great that in 2015 we have money again for 47 new ambulances. These will be totally new ambulances. This will be mean every ambulance will have be from 2007 or be younger or older whichever way one wants to cause that. Every ambulance will be capable of being remounted and having its engine replaced, which was not possible with the older service. All our ambulances are maintained. There is a full maintenance register and protocol in place and it is very strictly monitored. No ambulance is in operation with over 500,000 miles on the clock. When engines are replaced, it is not possible to turn back the clock or the mileage shown on the odometer. One would not know if there were 500,000, 600,000 miles or only 120,000 miles on the engine. We have introduced a change whereby a sticker is put inside - which is a simple solution - indicating that the engine has been replaced at whatever number of kilometres were on the engine.

The independent review by the firm we commissioned was an extra level of surety to assess what else we need to do with regard to the maintenance of the fleet and to have an independent assessment in terms of our fleet requirement. That will be available also at the end of December. These reviews take time because a great deal of data have to be gone through to analyse what is required.

We have 100 stations. Mr. Dunne will give details in regard to Dublin North East in particular, which is what the Deputy requested.