John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We were expecting the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and the Environment to be present, but we will say more on that later. I speak on behalf of Deputies Haughey and O'Brien, myself, all Fianna Fáil Dublin Deputies and all Fianna Fáil public representatives in Dublin. As the Minister of State will know, Dublin Fire Brigade, DFB, has been providing an ambulance service to the citizens of the city and county since 1898. That is almost 150 years. Uniquely, all firefighters are also paramedics and rotate between fire and ambulance duties. The dual role they have of fire-based emergency medical service is internationally recognised. It is also recognised as best practice. It is replicated in cities such as Seattle, New York, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt etc. The beauty of it is that Dublin is recognised as having the second best survival rate for out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in the world after Seattle. This is because of the fire-based emergency medical system. My colleagues will take up the debate.

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