Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am very sorry to hear that Deputy Brady's constituent had to wait 56 minutes for an ambulance but, as I am sure Deputy Brady will appreciate, the national ambulance service has to prioritise calls. Perhaps the paramedics were out taking another call from someone who was at risk of dying or someone who had cardiac arrest or a stroke. The service has to prioritise. No matter how many ambulances the service has, there will be multiple calls at any given time and the ambulance service has to put priority on life-saving calls and prioritise according to clinical need.

Deputy Brady asked what we are doing to improve the ambulance service. The service plan for next year will provide additional funding for the ambulance service, as it did this year and last year. An extra €4 million will be provided for next year. Obviously, it will be up to the national ambulance service to decide how best to allocate that.

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