Seán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Dublin Fire Brigade provides emergency ambulance services in Dublin city and county by arrangement between Dublin City Council and the National Ambulance Service of the HSE. Dublin Fire Brigade has a proud tradition of providing the fire-based ambulance service in the capital. International best practice indicates that combining fire rescue and emergency services greatly improves the response to a crisis. A total of 830 Dublin Fire Brigade firefighters, men and women, are trained paramedics. They are available to provide immediate, emergency medical assistance and the benefits of this integrated service should not be underestimated. Dublin Fire Brigade has been providing the ambulance service in the Dublin area since 1898.

Dubliners are rightly proud of their fire brigade and ambulance service and regard it with great affection. The chief executive of Dublin City Council, Owen Keegan, has stated that he wishes to see a transfer of all call taking and dispatching for ambulances to the national control centre in Tallaght. He has also stated that this has been agreed by the chief executives of the other Dublin local authorities and the HSE. Three reports have been commissioned recently on the ambulance service: the Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, report published in December 2014, a joint review by the HSE and Dublin City Council of the Dublin ambulance service, and the independent Lightfoot Solutions review. I suggest that there are flaws in all of these reports and conflicts of interest in some cases. The Minister of State should be very conscious of that. The then Minister for Health, Deputy Leo Varadkar, informed the Seanad on 10 March 2015 that staff in Dublin Fire Brigade would be fully consulted before any changes were implemented. Such a consultation has clearly not taken place. Dublin City Council recently passed a motion to the effect that the elected members in all the Dublin local authorities and on the regional assembly should be consulted about any proposed changes. During the same debate on 10 March 2015, the then Minister, Deputy Varadkar, also clarified the position on statutory responsibility for the Dublin ambulance service.

The provisions of the motion speak for themselves. There are two statutory providers of emergency ambulance services and they should both receive equal treatment and parity of esteem. Concerns in the HIQA report in particular have to be addressed. The solution is not to transfer the call taking and dispatch functions from the Dublin Fire Brigade centre in Townsend Street to the National Ambulance Service centre in Tallaght. In my view, a technical solution, using technology and IT to bring about the necessary co-ordination between the call centres is possible and should be positively examined.

There is also the major issue of governance in Dublin Fire Brigade. It must be accepted that Dublin Fire Brigade services are provided under fire services legislation. Therefore, statutory responsibility for these services rests with Dublin City Council and ultimately the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy. The HSE and the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, must look at this governance issue and accept what I have just said on that. As a result of the governing practice that is in place, Dublin Fire Brigade is being starved of resources and capacity and this is putting citizens at risk. A direct funding mechanism for Dublin Fire Brigade must be put in place. The expert panel on pre-hospital emergency care services in Dublin published its report in December 2015. These findings should be implemented in order to resolve the problems. Why is there no political will to do this? Why has this issue dragged on for so long?

Consultation is required under the provisions of section 32 of the Local Government (Dublin) Act 1993 which states that there must be consultation with local councillors in the four Dublin local authorities and the regional assembly. These procedures have not been followed in this case.

I will make one concluding remark. Our motion is no reflection on the personnel working in the National Ambulance Service. All we are asking for is that there is parity of esteem between the two statutory agencies in the delivery of these services. If it is not broken do not fix it.

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