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

The response vehicle situation is currently being reviewed. I wish to inform Deputy Ó Caoláin again of some facts that do not quite fit the picture he likes to portray. Over 600 calls have been carried out this year already by those vehicles and over 230 of these were out-of-hours calls responded to by officers who had these vehicles at their homes and who were able to respond in an out-of-hours situation. That is what they are there for. I am not saying, no more than anyone in the service is saying, that the service could not be improved. We have these reviews to inform us of how to further improve the service to the benefit of patients and citizens. We will continue to do that.

Vehicles are important in themselves and ambulances are rather important too. Getting an ambulance to a patient is a priority. However, the core priority is getting treatment to the patient. There is a major emphasis now on the pre-hospital emergency care situation in order that the patient gets treatment and is stabilised as early as possible. This allows for them to be transferred to hospital in a safe fashion.

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