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

The Minister is aware that SIPTU members in Dublin Fire Brigade will conduct 24 hour stoppages on Saturday 18 March and Monday 27 March to highlight their opposition to an attempt to break up the its emergency medical service by removing its ambulance call and dispatch functions. Fianna Fáil and I strongly oppose any move to remove the delivery of Dublin's ambulance service from Dublin Fire Brigade and to merge this service with the National Ambulance Service. We must enable and fully support the 1,000 personnel employed by Dublin Fire Brigade in order to maximise service delivery, provide greater efficiency and protect those in fire stations across Dublin. I call on the Minister to intervene in the dispute as a matter of urgency and to ensure that communities across Dublin, our capital city, are not left without fire-based emergency services for any period in the coming weeks.

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