Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I warmly welcome the motion, which Sinn Féin enthusiastically supports. While I thank the Minister of State for attending, it is disappointing that neither the Minister for Health or the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government were available given the importance of the issue. Perhaps one or other of them might be in the House to wrap up the debate.

I echo the comments of others. The men and women of Dublin Fire Brigade save lives and we cannot say that often enough. They do so by putting their own lives at extraordinary risk. I welcome the members of DFB to the Gallery, and on behalf of the constituents I represent, I thank them for continuing to put their lives at risk to keep us safe.

The motion is similar to motions that have been passed unanimously by several Dublin local authorities, which gives a sense of the strong feeling among many political parties on the matter. The motion speaks to several significant concerns. One concern is that Dublin City Council does not see the fire brigade as a core service. Another concern is that the HSE wants to absorb the emergency medical services. A further concern is that the funding mechanisms are cumbersome and that DFB has not received its fair share of the increase in funding in recent times. Crucially, there are concerns over the proposed transfer of call-taking from fire brigade to the national control centre in Tallaght. Certainly, this proposal is one the fire services staff I spoke to earlier believe could cost lives.

What surprises me most of all, however, is that all these concerns fly in the face of the recommendations from the expert panel. The Minister of State rightly listed several reports from 2007 to the present. However, she did not mention the report of the expert group established to work out how best to respond to the concerns of the HIQA report. The fact that it was not mentioned suggests, notwithstanding Government support, the call of Deputy Darragh O'Brien for the Government to enthusiastically embrace the recommendations of this motion, which I fully support, has yet to surface.

I will outline the key issues I want to raise. The expert group recognised the validity of the two models of ambulance service and it called for parity of esteem among them. It called for full financing for the two services to be derived from the two lead Departments as well as greater co-operation, co-ordination, governance and clinical governance between the two providers. Crucially, the report called for the maintenance of call taking and dispatch of both services. What all of us would like to hear today is that the Government supports the recommendations of that expert group. What was the point of the city council setting up an expert group and giving it this work if it would not accept the recommendations? Since it seems the council does not fully support them at management level, it is time for the Government to step in and join the rest of us in calling on the council to do so.

The Government do should do more than allow the motion to pass. It should ensure that those recommendations become core Government policy. Let us send a clear signal to Mr. Owen Keegan, Dublin City Council and the HSE to the effect that what they are currently trying to do is unacceptable and that we want a properly funded Dublin Fire Brigade with an emergency medical service and adequate funding. This will ensure that the men and women who put their lives at risk on a daily basis can continue to do so with full Government support and resourcing.

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