Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As I understand it, a dispute threatened in the National Ambulance Service last year. It related to some reports, one of which the Minister has referenced; I understand there are two reports. As part of the settlement of that dispute, NAS indicated that it was going to go abroad to try to recruit people and that it had been given a licence to do so - I think that was the term used although I do not know that one would be needed. NAS said it was embarking on a recruitment programme abroad because there was a recognition that, due to the lead time from starting training to finishing it, domestic recruitment would not have been enough to keep pace with requirements. In terms of recruitment, will the Minister indicate how many additional NAS staff there will be? How many of those will be people recruited as part of this international licence?

The Minister will also be aware that in Dublin we are blessed to have our paramedic services provided by both NAS and the Dublin Fire Brigade, DFB. Members of DFB have balloted for industrial action and that is not something they would do lightly. I am very familiar with this group from my previous role. The group actually would be very reluctant to take any form of industrial action but its members have been left with no choice because they feel the service is under threat. I do not think we could cope in Dublin without DFB. Its members are, as the Minster will know, trained fire fighters and also paramedics. They deliver an incredibly efficient service. Nobody want to see that dispute go ahead and I understand there is a budget conflict between the Minister and local government but, notwithstanding that, Dublin Fire Brigade provides health services. In terms of the resolution of that dispute, perhaps the Minister could give us his view as to how that will be resolved because the future of DFB does seem to be in some sort of jeopardy. That would concern us.

With regard to the National Ambulance Service budget and the inter-hospital transfers, my understanding is that transfers are carried out through a range of different sources, including taxis, private ambulances and directly employed personnel. Will the Minister give the committee a breakdown on that? He is probably sensing a theme in my questions but perhaps he could give us a breakdown. The Minister and I have had this conversation many times and I do not believe we get good value for money from the private sector. I have yet to see any evidence that we do. I am also very interested to know the budget for taxis. People spoke about this a number of years ago, and I hope the reason no one is talking about it any more is because it has reduced significantly. I suspect it has not, but perhaps people have just moved on to talking about something else.

In respect of the 27 measures that are listed here, obviously there will be more than 27 measures with regard to a budget which, I believe, is 31% of the total Vote. He may not have it to hand, but perhaps the Minister could provide the committee with more detail in terms of the actions and plans for next year.

With regard to the IT budget, we all agree with the need to improve IT in the acute sector. That is almost worse because once everybody agrees, one is left wondering when it will happen. I could be open to question on this but even if we doubled our IT budget, we would still be short of what the average is in the OECD. It is a bit ridiculous, when one walks into a hospital, to see people walking around with files. I am sure they would much rather move to a paper-light or paperless system. Have key targets and areas been identified where actual progress can be made in this area? It is really not acceptable in this day and age to have people running around with big charts and files under their arms.