Mr. Ted Kenny:

I will give the committee a classic example. Using County Kerry as an example, we have ambulance bases in Tralee, Killarney, Dingle, Listowel, Caherciveen and Kenmare. A couple of weeks ago, all those ambulances were either tied up in the accident and emergency department of University Hospital Kerry or were out of the county. There was a road traffic accident in Slea Head, outside Dingle, and the ambulance sent to the scene was dispatched from Castletownbere, two and a half hours away. If there was an incident in Castletownbere when that ambulance was on route, an ambulance would have been dispatched from somewhere else. There is a triple effect all the time.