Séamus Kirk (Louth, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the selection of the matter and for the opportunity to raise it.

In recent times, I have received complaints about the ambulance service in counties Louth and Meath being somewhat erratic. Whether or not that is because of some organisational difficulty, I do not know.

Pre-hospital emergency care is vital. If there is to be a dependable health service, the pre-hospital emergency care is vital to the provision of that service. The ambulance response time is critical. Where somebody is unwell and needs to get to hospital quickly, the ambulance must be available with the qualified personnel on board.

If the service is understaffed, response times will suffer accordingly and one will finish up with a diminished service as a result. The key performance indicators recommended by HIQA include appropriately trained personnel attending patients with life-threatening cardiac or respiratory arrest incidents within eight minutes in 75% of all cases.

A number of parliamentary questions have been submitted here in this House and they indicate that those targets are not being met on a regular basis. It begs questions about the position in the Louth-Meath ambulance service area. Is there an issue with staff shortages and is there a truncated ambulance service as a result? Is there sufficient paramedical staff available?

Is there sufficient staff available where staff, for one reason or another, are not in a position to come to work? If that is the issue, what is the plan of the HSE and, from now, the Department of Health? This is a vital service. The emergency hospital need can arise unexpectedly for anybody right across the country.

It is fine to reform the health service, building the structures of the hospitals and the reconfiguration of the services within the hospitals, but the vital linkage is the ambulance service and the response time in that regard is equally important. I look forward to hearing what the Minister of State has to say on the matter.

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