Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I do not mean to be ageist but everybody in this Chamber probably remembers when we had ambulance drivers and they were able to take two people in an ambulance at a time. Everything has changed and we no longer have ambulance drivers but paramedics and advanced paramedics. They are highly trained health professionals and many people in the State owe them their lives.

Equally, we determined, in line with best practice, that ambulances could only take one person at a time rather than two. When that decision was made, nobody ever thought to double the number of ambulances. The number of ambulances stayed the same but the number of people who could be transported in those ambulances was halved. We have infinitely better trained and arguably better resourced paramedics but we are still restricted by the fact we have the same number of ambulances to cater for a larger population than before, when people could take two in an ambulance. I am not suggesting we go back to the days of taking two people in an ambulance but we must bear in mind that people are often waiting longer for an ambulance.

I will speak to the training of ambulance personnel, including paramedics and advanced paramedics. As I said, once these were drivers but now we have highly trained health professionals, which is very good. How are these people entering the ambulance service? Along with running an ambulance service, the NAS has its own sort of training scheme. My understanding is that this is quite unusual in comparison with European standards, as most European states now take paramedics through universities. Of course, we now have university training for paramedics at the University of Limerick. How many graduates of the University of Limerick paramedic course entered the NAS directly or even managed to get work experience there?

My understanding is that few have managed to do this, and the number may be one in recent years. The vast majority of graduates from that course in Limerick end up in the United Kingdom working for its ambulance services. Of course, they are of huge benefit to the people of the United Kingdom but we are training them in our university system. For the most part they are of our nationality, although, as with all our medical personnel, they are not all of our nationality. Will the Minister of State consider this? We need to get more people working in the ambulance service and consider how our resources are spent. If a university is producing graduates, we must ensure those graduates can access work in Ireland and we are not producing graduates to export in an area where we so badly need them working here.

I am not asking the Minister of State to respond tonight. Like many others, I have raised the matter before. I thank Sinn Féin for the opportunity it has afforded for us to raise the matter again.

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