Mr. Peter Ray:

For the first eight years they are applied every year, and the final long service increment has a three-year wait. It takes people 11 years to get to the top rate. There is nothing unique about this; it is linked to HSE pay scales. The difficulty is that the ambulance service looks for people with a significant amount of life and coping skills to ensure they are able to deal with what they will face. A lot of people who come into this job have families and we have challenges with relocation to anywhere around the country due to the fact it is a national service. We have tried to ameliorate the situation on a number of occasions, but there has been limited success.

Generally it takes people a bit of time to get back to where they want to be. The crippling costs of relocation post qualification in the National Ambulance Service are very economically and domestically challenging for a lot of people. Within the capital, there is a difficulty with rising rents and housing costs. We face the same challenges as all other professions. The challenge is whether people can live a comfortable life on the pay rate that currently exist. Unfortunately, the answer is "No" considering what people put into and get out of it.