Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank my colleague Deputy David Cullinane for tabling this motion. We need action and need it now. The red tape in recruitment, which was spoken about, needs to be removed. We need more beds in our hospital system and to increase hospital capacity to prevent patients from having to wait in ambulances and on trolleys. We need to expand our ambulance fleet to ensure all communities, both rural and urban, are properly served. It is just not acceptable that the complement of the National Ambulance Service, 2,500, is but half that of Scotland, 5,000.

There are many in this room who have had to call an ambulance at some stage or who, unfortunately, had to travel in one as a patient. For the vast majority, calling an ambulance is the last resort when someone is really ill. An ambulance is called in extreme circumstances and with great reluctance. When an ambulance is called, people expect an appropriate response time. However, this is increasingly not the case in both urban and rural communities. I have heard of people having to wait for an ambulance for an hour or more.

My family had to come face to face with the reality of the pressure the ambulance staff are under just this day last week. My mother, who is in her eighties, was very sick last week with an infection and an ambulance was called at 1 p.m. Despite numerous calls throughout the day, an ambulance did not turn up until 5.30 p.m. We live in East Wall, and my mother was brought to the Mater hospital, which is just up the road. Does the Minister believe that is acceptable in a modern health service? I certainly do not believe so.

Last night I was shocked to see on the RTÉ programme that the first recorded case of a patient having to wait overnight on a trolley was in 1998. There are 409 people on trolleys as we stand here today. That the first recorded case was in 1998 is shocking. It is not acceptable and there are solutions. It is time we got on with listening to the workers, management and Deputies in this Chamber and implemented the solutions that exist. Not doing so with a sense of extreme urgency is to continue to put people's lives at risk.

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