Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies. Many points were raised in their comments. I will get clarification from the National Ambulance Service on Loughglynn but my note just tells me that it is a deployment point. I take Deputy Murphy's point in respect of the importance of the ambulance service and the great work that it carries out.

This is an area in which we clearly have a lot more work to do. The Lightfoot report presents a roadmap forward in terms of the investment and the scale of investment needed in terms of both paramedics and vehicles. I made the point in my opening comment on this section that we will have to grapple with this collectively. The population dispersal in this country, according to the external consultancy, Lightfoot, poses significant challenges in terms of ambulance response times. The Lightfoot report is very clear that even if we increase the number of ambulances and paramedics, we will need to do something above and beyond that. We need to do something innovative here. Some of the ideas the Deputy has come up with are part of that process.

People have an absolute right to live in rural Ireland. We want rural Ireland to thrive and those living there have a right to an ambulance service, just like people in towns and cities, but we have to recognise that the population dispersal means we need to think outside the box in this regard. Lightfoot suggests community first responders as a starting point. I met a group from Connemara in Galway when I was in University Hospital Galway recently.

The group asked whether they could have greater use of the St. John Ambulance and the Order of Malta services. I believe there is a willingness from those organisations to do more. In fact, the complaint from the group was that communities had fund-raised for an ambulance, whether a St. John Ambulance or Order of Malta ambulance, only to find that the ambulance could not be fully utilised in all situations. Obviously, there is a regulator. It is not me; it is the Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council. There is space for the regulator to work with us and engage with those organisations. That is something I intend to pursue. I believe such engagement could unleash additional capacity for rural communities and provide them with a far better ambulance service in addition to all of the improvements we intend to make.

I note the theme from Deputy O'Reilly's questions. In fairness, it is consistent.