Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

That seems to be the case, given what has been said about an ambulance going from Donegal to Tipperary. I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this motion this evening. I am glad to say we are not opposing it. No differently from anybody else in the Chamber, I have listened to the debate on the motion in its entirety. I have a record of answering debates on ambulance services in Connemara, and I am glad to say that ambulance service has been put in place. I am also glad to hear Deputy Kerrane's experience in Roscommon.

I have worked on this over the summer and I have met representatives of the NAS, etc. There are certain fundamental pieces to be put in place. Although we have many ambulances, we must consider a dedicated retrieval ambulance team.

It would be like a mobile intensive care unit. Deputy Danny Healy-Rae spoke about the poor man who lost his fingers. It is needed for the likes of that. Such teams need to be put in place sporadically around the country.

We also need to look at the implementation of a trauma strategy to reduce the need for people to access services through the acute services and the accident and emergency units.

Deputy McNamara raised the ambulance apprenticeship programme. I checked it before coming into the Chamber this evening. It was launched on 11 November and the closing date is 28 November. That is the apprenticeship model. The Deputy spoke about what is going on in our universities. The Deputy said that it is in Limerick, but my understanding was that it is in Cork. I thought a masters programme was taking place in University College Cork. Of the 16 who have been trained, six are on a panel. I cannot answer the question about how many were recruited into the service, but I know there are six on a panel. One would wonder why we have them on a panel and are not using their expertise.

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