Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

When Fine Gael was in opposition, we moved a good samaritan Bill on two occasions. The previous Government followed a recommendation from the Law Reform Commission integrated into a Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill which was passed by this Dáil. Its purpose is to give a defence to an action for an individual who assists someone else in good faith and who, whether through omission or commission, adds to the injury. If something is not broken, one should not fix it. The Minister of State's reply sounded nice. I spoke to the Minister of Health about this issue earlier but the reply contained a lot of bureaucratic waffle and I say that with deference to the Minister of State, whom I do not blame personally. However, she should go back to the Minister to examine this issue. Of the 1,500 calls responded to last year, I am not aware of one complaint by a member of the public. I regret that I can almost assure the Minister of State that if the current policy remains in place, the scheme will collapse. A total of 500 people work on a voluntary basis, mostly in isolated areas with little immediate access to the national ambulance service within a certain timeframe. These areas, which are represented by Deputy Doyle, myself and others, will suffer. The previous Minister for Health set about replicating the scheme throughout the country.

The standard of the people trained as community first responders is excellent. They have won awards and they are of the highest calibre. They are hugely committed but they are seething and frustrated at the bureaucratic nature of the HSE over the recent period. They had an excellent relationship with the ambulance service of the old health board, which was progressive and took this issue on board when other ambulance services did not. There was resistance in other areas because people working in the ambulance service felt they would be replaced by volunteers. This is an invaluable resource to an area and if we let it slip, I will hang my head in shame. The Minister of State should go back to the bureaucrats. When we were on the Opposition benches, we spoke about them consistently. It would be a poor day if we allowed this scheme to collapse based on a load of waffle, with no tangible evidence that the current scheme has caused trouble or that the new standards will bring about improvement.

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