Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 8 October 2025

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health

National Ambulance Service: Discussion

2:00 am

Mr. Pat Healy:

I will respond to that. First - I think this is important for the public - there is not a crisis in the ambulance service and I do not believe there is a toxic relationship either. There is a very difficult negotiation and engagement going on and in those circumstances you can have very strong views. Different parts of the system and the workforce have different perspectives. I go back to the broad piece I talked about. We have gone through a two-year process, including the WRC and the Labour Court. I have gone through all that. Where we are currently is that the trade union is engaging with its members, as is appropriate, after the ballot and the rejection which was, for the reasons that were said, a significant rejection. It has work to do to look at that. My expectation is that, collectively, we will be back using the industrial relations machinery of the WRC to see how we move forward. I might ask Mr. Eamon Hunt, our assistant national director in HR, to comment on that.

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