Mr. Ted Kenny:

The Deputy makes a fair point. We have been endeavouring to get that involvement.

From the perspective of the National Ambulance Service, a hospital liaison officer should be deployed in hospitals. That would free up accident and emergency departments and deal with the issue of transferring patients from hospitals to free up beds. That approach works extremely well in Scotland. It was done on a trial basis in University Hospital Kerry and it worked well. It reduced the cost of patient transport for the hospital. The National Ambulance Service provided most of the transfers, which previously were provided by taxis and private companies.