Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

My information is that the air rescue service is working very well. I am not aware of any instances, especially, where people died because of any fault or slowness in the services. When we were operating a helicopter rescue service using Army aircraft rather than the current arrangement, we ran out of capacity to provide a full 24-hour service because of industrial action — the Air Corps version of blue 'flu. Because of that we had to change that system. I am told the new system is working very well. If Deputy Cowley has particular examples where he believes people suffered further injury or even death, as a result of helicopters not being available in time, I invite him to communicate them to me, privately.

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