Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It should make our engagements more predictable. I will have to ask the HSE to give the Deputy a note on it because these are operational matters. We have taken note of them. I urge Deputy O'Reilly to come back to me if she does not get satisfactory information in reply. That includes the question of recruitment from abroad.

I realise Deputy O'Reilly knows the history of the Dublin Fire Brigade question, but it is important for me to put it on the record of the committee. In December 2014, HIQA published a review of pre-hospital emergency care. A series of recommendations were made in respect of Dublin services to address patient safety issues, to reduce risk and to improve co-operation between the National Ambulance Service and Dublin Fire Brigade. I met representatives of Dublin Fire Brigade through SIPTU. I acknowledge the exceptional service that DFB provides. This is not an attempt to suggest anything to the contrary.

HIQA is engaged in a follow-up review to the 2014 report. HIQA expects to publish a report this month or in April. While it is fair to say that a good level of co-operation exists between the National Ambulance Service, NAS, and Dublin Fire Brigade, DFB, in providing the service to Dublin city and county, it is also fair to say that some difficulties exist. I believe that is generally recognised although the way to resolve the matter may not be. The difficulties might relate to the volume of calls received by the Dublin Fire Brigade. Some calls have to be stacked when no DFB ambulance resource is available to respond to a call. When these circumstances arise, Dublin Fire Brigade usually requests support from the National Ambulance Service.

HIQA wrote to Dublin City Council late last year indicating that the current arrangements represent a risk to patients. HIQA, as the regulator, believes this risk arises from the regular delay in the allocation of ambulance resources to patients, including a high number of potentially life-threatening DELTA calls, due to a combination of the ongoing inability of DFB to see all of the potential resources that it and the NAS have at initial dispatch as well as a reliance on individual contact with NAS over the telephone to enable supplementary resource allocation, where available. Moreover, HIQA believes there is insufficient collective emergency ambulance capacity, as currently resourced and deployed by DFB and NAS, in the Dublin area.

In light of the correspondence and to mitigate any risk to patients in the area under my remit, that is to say, the NAS, additional resources were deployed to Dublin. That was an important step. An issue arises relating to line of sight and how these organisations, both of which undertake incredible work, can co-operate.

I know that the people of Dublin city and county are proud of the track record of exceptional delivery of services by Dublin Fire Brigade in respect of fire and ambulance services. For want of a better phrase, we need to be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater in rectifying the difficulties and challenges. No one can ignore these challenges in light of what HIQA has said.

As Deputy O'Reilly knows well, Dublin Fire Brigade SIPTU members have voted in favour of industrial action over concerns about ambulance services in Dublin. It is fair to say that the results of the ballot probably reflect a wider unrest in respect of DFB about future certainty and fire-based emergency medical services. This dates back as far as the 2014 HIQA report. I look forward to the next HIQA report. It will represent a follow-up exercise to point us along the roadmap to try to solve this situation.

My Department is engaging with the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government in respect of the industrial action vote by SIPTU members. The issues need to be grappled with in terms of where responsibility lies. Following my meeting with SIPTU representatives, I believe SIPTU takes the same view. It is a health service question. This is an ambulance service under the remit of the city council. In turn, the city council is under the remit of the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government for certain functions. I am awaiting the HIQA report and I expect it to be published shortly.