Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I am on the clock. Paul Cullen of The Irish Timeswent to a lot of trouble to get his hands on this report. He had to go through the entire freedom of information process and appeals. It was finally released to him. If a report is released under freedom of information, it should be publicly available to anybody who requests it. I would expect the witnesses would supply us with that report in the next two weeks. We know, thanks to Paul Cullen, that patients in Dublin are at potential risk from sub-optimal ambulance provision in the capital from two overlapping State agencies, according to the report, which was commissioned and published in 2016. There are two overlapping agencies providing services and nobody seems to be in charge. The article states, "Significant extra resources are required, deployed in a very different way, if response times are to be optimised". It also states, "The governance and financing of ambulance services in Dublin has been “problematic” over the last 20 years ... with the DFB claiming it is insufficiently funded for the service it provides." It states, "Both organisations require “considerable improvement” and there are concerns about clinical governance in both."

Those quotes that I have read out are absolutely damning of both organisations with regard to governance or lack of governance. Why are we still talking about this? The problems have been going on for 20 years and it is time they were addressed. We know this new task and finish body has been established to look at an alternative model. I want to ask both organisations what that alternative model should be, in their view.