James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will address the specific issues. Since 2011 the HSE has been implementing response time standards on a phased basis in tandem with planned service improvement. In 2013 the HSE target for patient carrying vehicles to respond within 19 minutes was 70% for echo calls, that is, life-threatening cardiac and respiratory incidents, and 68% for delta calls, that is, life-threatening other than cardiac and respiratory incidents. For 2014 the target is 80% for both call types. It is important to remember that there has been over 1,000 extra calls per month in the past year. To say that we have been instigating cutbacks is utterly untrue. There has been a rationalising of control rooms towards one national system, which is ongoing. This is delivering improved technology to improve response times. The amount of investment in the past three years has been up year-on-year. In 2012 it was €128.7 million, in 2013 it was €135.1 million and in 2014 it was €137 million.

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