John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate on this motion which aims to ensure that the full emergency services provided by Dublin Fire Brigade across the city and county remain as they are.

Dublin Fire Brigade, as the House will be aware, has been providing ambulance and emergency services for 120 years. It is worth putting on the record my own personal appreciation for the work that the men and women of Dublin Fire Brigade carry out on a daily basis. Too often, we take them for granted. We see incidents where they put their lives at risk to look after the welfare of the people of this city and I want to acknowledge the work they do.

The Minister has indicated that there is no threat to the future of Dublin Fire Brigade and the ambulance service it provides but the evidence, as put forward by my colleague, indicates the contrary. Last year Dublin Fire Brigade ambulance service responded to 115,000 calls. I do not want to get bogged down in the numbers but to make the point that the level of service being operated by Dublin Fire Brigade ambulance service in the capital is growing significantly year on year.

The ambulance service operated by Dublin Fire Brigade benefits from the fact that the firefighters are also all trained paramedics. There are 830 of them. That is quite different than many other ambulance services. We have seen reports on the fire service and ambulance service indicating that the standard in Dublin is second to none. Internationally, it is acknowledged to have one of the highest standards.

When we look at the level of funding provided, we must question the Government's actions. In 2017, the National Ambulance Service saw an increase in its funding. I know this because I asked the relevant parliamentary questions at the time. However, Dublin Fire Brigade ambulance service did not receive such an increase. In fact, it did not receive an increase in 2017, 2016 or 2015. That leads me to ask the following question.

At a time when the National Ambulance Service is seeing an increase in funding, at a time when the activity, requirement, demand and call-out activity is growing, why is it that the ambulance service operated by Dublin Fire Brigade, funded by the HSE through Dublin City Council is not seeing a marked increase in funding as well? There is an issue there and while the Minister has said it is not his intention and there is no plan to merge the ambulance services, he is not demonstrating it in terms of the funding levels. The questions have to be asked and I specifically ask the Minister of State to look at them.

Dublin Fire Brigade operates a fleet of 12 ambulances at the moment as I understand it, which is four fewer than it should have. There is a funding deficit. Some of the deficit is clearly made up by the city council but it is insufficient in terms of direct funding from the HSE. Why is it that the HSE is funding Dublin Fire Brigade ambulance services? Why is it not the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment directly rather than the HSE? If those issues were addressed they would allay some of the fears but the concern, as I have demonstrated clearly, is that the funding level to Dublin Fire Brigade's ambulance service has not kept pace with the National Ambulance Service over the last few years. Those concerns need to be addressed in the Minister of State's response to assure the members of Dublin Fire Brigade who are providing an excellent service for the people of our city that the service they are providing will be maintained, enhanced and supported by the Members of this House.

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