David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)

I welcome the witnesses. I will start with page 11 of the briefing document Mr. Healy submitted. He says it is acknowledged that the purple or red calls, which fall outside the targets that are set, can see patients waiting for more than two hours for an emergency service response. Obviously, those are the ones that are most problematic for us and I imagine for patients and service users as well. I received a huge number of calls and texts from paramedics on a whole range of issues in advance of this committee session. One crew whom I spoke to yesterday gave me an experience they had on 3 October. The crew was critical of the central command structure for dispatching calls, the National Emergency Operations Centre, NEOC.

In any event, on 3 October, this crew was travelling from St. Vincent's hospital in Elm Park. It was dispatched to a nursing home in Balbriggan. While it was en route, the crew got a call and was told it had to go to a two-car crash in Drogheda. There were four people on the side of the road with unknown injuries. The crew asked if there were any other vehicles nearby and was told "No". Obviously, the crew had to go. Within one minute of getting to the scene, it was again diverted and this time it was sent to Navan to attend to a 97-year-old woman.

How can that be? This is an experience that has been recounted to me by a lot of paramedics, this example of being sent around the country rather than a more efficient response and use of paramedics. Why is this happening, and in Mr. Healy's view, is there an issue with the NEOC?