Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I shudder when I hear the word "reconfiguration". We have reconfigured. We lost our hospital in Cashel. We have a High Court agreement. The paramedics and staff are not resisting change. All they want is to be able to operate in the knowledge that they will not be blamed for any embarrassing or sad situations that might arise. I do not want to predict doom and gloom. When I hear all the lovely talk about "reconfiguration" - the Minister was prepared to read a statement about what might or will happen to the National Ambulance Service - I wonder what will happen when ambulances cannot get away from hospitals because there are no beds or trolleys to put people on, which is what happened at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda. Does the Minister know what will happen to all the predictions regarding delivery, call-out and response times when an ambulance is held up for hours because the trolley the last patient was brought in on is being used in the hospital to accommodate that person due to a lack of trolleys? This is all poppycock. It is lovely in writing. It is lovely jargon for the Minister to read out and quote from. It is nice that it is dressed up in flowery language like "reconfiguration".

The bottom line is that we need a safe service. The people of Tipperary and elsewhere are entitled to such a service. They should not have to wait for periods of time that one might expect to have to wait for in a Third World country. We have to maintain this. Does the Minister have any respect for the High Court or Supreme Court judges? Does he have any respect for the agreements that were signed and organised by his colleague, the Minister, Deputy Noonan, when he served as Minister for Health? I ask the Minister to intervene in this matter by asking the National Ambulance Service to come up with proper management structures. He has mentioned figures for new ambulances and new recruits, but what about natural wastage? What about vehicles that are off the road because they have reached the end of their days? Is the Minister expecting the Civil Defence or the Red Cross to fall in here? Is he expecting people to use their own vehicles?

During a recent edition of "Prime Time", we heard about many cases of people who were beside hospitals in built-up areas but nevertheless had to wait nearly an hour for ambulances to arrive. This is not the fault of the paramedics. We do not have enough of them because they are being cut back, moved and downgraded. Blame is being placed on honourable people who are trained and abide by the hippocratic oath. They want to look after those who are in need, but they do not have the personnel or the ambulances to enable them to do so. The Minister spoke about new radios and everything else. That will not be much good to people when they are in the hills of Hollyford or Araglin, with an hour and a half of driving in between. I ask the Minister to sit up and see what is happening here. He needs to stop this situation from arising. He should not wait for the review, as it will be too late for people's lives.

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