Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

When I was a Minister, we recognised that the more isolated rural areas were unlikely to ever get an ambulance service adjacent to them. The Minister would appreciate far more than me the rule about the golden hour. As a result, we decided to grant aid through the Order of Malta and the Red Cross the purchase of voluntary ambulances. Local people did all the necessary training up to the standards laid down to become voluntary ambulance workers. We had a very good ambulance service in places like Carna, Leenane and Clonbur in my own area but also around the country. We had ambulances in place anywhere a local community was willing to commit to this service. They were available on call-out. It meant that times getting to incidents were vastly reduced.

It was with great shock that I found out recently that the ambulance service of the HSE has claimed that these people who are trained to the national standard and have the qualifications laid down by the Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council are not considered sufficiently trained to continue to provide this service. My understanding is that there are four levels of qualified staff - emergency first responder, emergency medical technician, paramedics and advanced paramedics. I understand that the HSE's argument is that these people are not trained paramedics. It is strange that they are allowed to attend football matches gratis and any other event and that if a person has a heart attack there, there is no problem with putting them in the ambulance. However, they cannot do a call-out in our area and we must wait for an hour, an hour and a half or two hours for a first call. An ambulance could be sitting within ten to 15 minutes of the person affected but according to some bizarre rule, they cannot get that ambulance to provide the service.

I presume the Minister was not aware of this. I would not expect him to know every detail of every decision made by the HSE. However, this issue is worthy of an investigation. Perhaps in his reply, the Minister could commit to coming back having investigated the basis for this decision.

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