Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for affording me the opportunity to raise this issue. I am glad the Minister, Deputy James Reilly, is in the Chamber to take it. As he will know, in south Tipperary an ambulance service operates out of Cashel, Clonmel and Tipperary town. There has been a concentrated effort by the national ambulance service to downgrade the service in south Tipperary by reducing the number of ambulances and ambulance personnel. It is bad enough having people waiting on trolleys in our hospital in south Tipperary on a daily basis and staff operating under enormous pressures. Now we will not have enough ambulances to collect sick people in any type of reasonable response time. The service covers a huge area from the hills of Araglin right up to the hills of Hollyford. It includes a national primary road and a motorway, as well as significant industry. This issue is of huge concern to people in the area who are wondering what will happen if they have an accident or become ill.

I have called on the national ambulance service to engage immediately, on respectful and conciliatory terms, with ambulance personnel in south Tipperary. I salute those staff on behalf of my constituents in south Tipperary and beyond for their dedication in getting to people as fast as they can and using their paramedic training to stabilise patients and transport them safely to hospital. The personnel in Cashel have come up with a very reasonable proposal that will improve the situation from the perspective of the HSE and the national ambulance service management. They have offered an additional four hours of cover per day and other changes to the roster, which is currently very damaging to their own family life. This proposal has been rejected, however, by the national ambulance service, which seems determined to downgrade the service in Cashel and possibly also in Clonmel.

The Minister is aware that we have lost the psychiatric hospital in Clonmel. Patients are now transferred to Kilkenny, which makes the ambulance service even more important. I do not have time to list all the pressures under which the service is operating. Will the Minister take a common sense approach and engage directly on this issue? He promised when he took office that he would get rid of the HSE and take a hands-on approach, instead of having these agencies in the middle engaging in bullyboy tactics and telling people they must do X or Y or else. We have a High Court agreement signed by the then Minister for Health and now Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, under which guarantees were given that two ambulances would be based in Clonmel, with sufficient staff and an adequate roster. Those guarantees were reiterated last year.

I was present on the day the agreement was reinforced or reinstated by a Supreme Court judge.

The Minister has to sit up and listen. He must get involved here. These very dedicated staff are covered under the Haddington Road agreement. The Minister is using reviews, mar dhea examinations and more reviews to wait until the Haddington Road agreement runs out. At that stage, he will do the dirty work and remove the ambulance. The people of Tipperary will not stand for this. They are entitled to a modicum of service. The personnel who are in place are doing a good job. I want the Minister to live up to the commitment he gave the people of Tipperary and the rest of Ireland, which was that he would take a hands-on approach to prevent the HSE from issuing diktats without any communication or engagement with local politicians or the personnel involved. He should ask the HSE to acknowledge that what is currently in place is not broken and therefore does not need to be fixed. The people of Tipperary should have some bit of ease and relaxation in the knowledge that an ambulance will come if it is needed.

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