Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am happy to speak on the motion this evening which I support. I compliment my Fianna Fáil colleagues on tabling the motion. I got very worried when I read in the motion that there are concerns that the Health Service Executive is seeking to remove the delivery of Dublin's ambulance service from Dublin Fire Brigade and instead to merge the service with the National Ambulance Service. I agree with the motion that such a proposal could have a hugely negative impact on the delivery of services from the Dublin Fire Brigade call centre and that removing any element of its fire-based emergency medical service, EMS, system will have an adverse effect on safeguarding communities. That is what we are all about here. Our primary duty as elected politicians is to safeguard the people in our communities.

How can anyone in this day and age think it is a good or progressive move to merge any service within the fold of a completely dysfunctional HSE or even the National Ambulance Service? The HSE gets more dysfunctional by the hour. It beggars belief that a health service that is so dysfunctional and chaotic would even seek to have such a move sanctioned. However, it would, because it has no shame. We saw today that Professor Hillery resigned. More people will resign and flee from the HSE because it is utterly dysfunctional, power-grabbing, self-serving and unaccountable. There are many good workers on the ground but not at management level. I am afraid that despite the heroic work being performed by ambulance personnel right across the State, the same, sadly, cannot be said of the National Ambulance Service itself.

In my county of Tipperary - in Clonmel, Thurles, Cashel, Tipperary town and Nenagh - we only have one ambulance each to cover night duty from Monday to Sunday each week. I do not blame the ambulance crews, drivers or paramedics. I blame management. It is all about management. To hell with the people and to hell with the crews according to the HSE bible. It is absolutely appalling to think that a single ambulance is being provided to cover night duty in each of the towns concerned. The hinterland of the towns could stretch 20 miles up into the mountains of Hollyford, the Galtee Mountains or the Knockmealdowns. The towns are major urban centres, not to mention the surrounding rural localities, which rely on efficient ambulance services.

I am informed by the NAS that despite recommendations from its first ever capacity review on the urgent need to recruit additional staff, this will only occur over the next four years. This is disgusting and represents a blatant disregard for people's safety and lives and for ambulance crews. This is unacceptable, given the ongoing chaos and numbers attending emergency departments in South Tipperary General Hospital and University Hospital Limerick and the numbers of patients waiting on trolleys. There also seems to be a significant disparity in the level of ambulances and rapid response vehicles that are assigned to day duties for each of these towns. Cashel, Roscrea and Tipperary town, for example, have only one ambulance each, covering duty from Monday to Sunday while Nenagh has one ambulance and an initial rapid response vehicle covering the same time period.

The NAS is talking about developing a single, cohesive, strategic plan for ambulance services called Vision 2020 - God help us. Any visions the HSE had are a distant fog on the mountain peaks and are disappearing by the hour. How many more strategies do we need? Given all of this, is it any wonder that Dublin Fire Brigade is terrified of having its ambulance service subsumed within the NAS, never mind the HSE? I salute the members of fire brigade. A good friend of mine from Tipperary, Mr. Michael O'Donnell, is a proud member and he educated me about the fire brigade when I came to Dublin first because I was not aware of the situation with regard to the fire brigade providing an ambulance service. They do an excellent job and as the saying goes, "If it's not broken, don't fix it". We must not allow the HSE to get its greedy and greasy paws on this service. All it wants is prestige and self-preservation and to hell with the people. I salute the Dublin Fire Brigade whose members do their duty gallantly. They always do so when we come up here for All Ireland and other matches. We will not be here this year, unfortunately, but we will be here next year. Comhghairdeas leo go léir.

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