Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There was a cut in non-rostered ambulance cover. I am concerned as to whether that will impact on this service. The worry is that if something happens to a person in Tralee and the ambulance is on call in Killarney, it will take a long time for that person to receive assistance. How will this affect the Pathfinder programme? The fact that it is not part of the service plan raises concerns. Maybe it is not included because it is a pilot programme. When we discussed this before, we all accepted it is working and seems to tick all the boxes with regard to keeping vulnerable people out of dangerous places - emergency departments and so on. It also saves beds and saves money. It ticks all the boxes in the context of what we are talking about this morning. The fact that we are not funding the programme into the future worries me.