David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday I attended the funeral and extended sympathy to the family of the little boy who passed away so tragically. I am pleased the Minister of State is in the Chamber, but I am disappointed neither the Minister for Health nor a Minister of State from the Department is present to debate such an important issue. I have faith in the Minister of State who is present.

Many serious questions must be answered. What happened? I want the preliminary report to be made available as soon as possible. For two hours yesterday I engaged with approximately 70 or 80 very angry, distressed and worried people who were outside my office. The anger and concern about this and other such incidents is palpable. We need answers and we need them quickly. I hope the Minister of State will have some answers for us. What about other first responders whom I understand are normally alerted when such an incident occurs? Why were they not alerted? We have since been told other ambulances were available. Why was one of them not dispatched to the scene? What about the other rapid response vehicle in the area?

The role of SouthDoc needs to be examined. The reconfiguration of the ambulance service needs to be examined and I call on HIQA to be involved in this. Why is it when ambulances go to Cork University Hospital they are often held there for quite an amount of time before they can leave because their stretchers and trolleys are kept in the hospital until the patients are taken off them? How many calls are responded to and what is the average time of response? How many frivolous calls are made to the ambulance service? Very serious questions are raised and it is a life-and-death situation. A family has buried a little two-year-old boy. Nobody knows whether he would have survived if an ambulance had arrived, but one was not available at midday on a bank holiday Monday, which one would imagine to be a very quiet time with not much demand for an ambulance service. We need answers quickly.

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