Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 8 October 2025

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health

National Ambulance Service: Discussion

2:00 am

Mr. Robert Morton:

The staff wanted to get rid of on call. It is not a particularly productive way of working. It is a very restrictive lifestyle. Nowadays, people only want to work a 12-hour shift pattern and that is pretty much what we do. All of our resources are layered on a 12-hour shift pattern. We do not have on call anywhere. Actually, I think we may have a couple of hours of on-call cover in somewhere like Belmullet, but that is about the size of it.