Mr. Robert Morton:

The medical assessment unit, MAU, pathway is good for the patients who benefit from it, for the patients who are seeking to access 999 services generally and for our staff. It basically means that patients are getting care closer to home, getting care that is probably more appropriate and getting access more quickly. That is good for patients. For our staff, it means journey times, or job cycle times, are shorter. The probability of being trapped at a hospital many miles away and not getting off duty on time is lessened, which is good for staff. It also keeps the ambulances local for longer. If the ambulance is going to Ennis, Nenagh, Roscommon or Mallow, as the case may be, it can be turned around more quickly, which is good for patients seeking to access 999 services. It is good all around. I may ask Professor O'Donnell to touch on the clinical aspects in a moment.

On the second part of the Deputy's question, the national directorate of fire and emergency management in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage has done some very good work on the retention of retained firefighters. One of the recommendations, recommendation 6, suggests that retained firefighters in Ireland should be considered for deployment in other response roles, including things like responding on behalf of the National Ambulance Service. That aligns with current Government policy as seen in the task force report on sudden cardiac death from 2007. Recommendation 5.19 said that other uniformed responders should respond to emergency calls to try to reduce mortality from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. We believe that retained fire services could play a very strong role in supporting the National Ambulance Service. We believe it could make a great difference with regard to out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Fire services, including our colleagues in Dublin Fire Brigade, participate in the steering group on the national out-of-hospital cardiac arrest strategy. One of the focuses of the group's work is considering how fire services can become more involved in that area. We see a stronger aspect to that. I will ask Professor O'Donnell to touch on the MAU pathway piece.