Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for discussing this matter with me today. I am talking about the funding needs of the great service that is provided by the Irish Community Air Ambulance. As the Minister of State will be acutely aware, the service provided by the Irish Community Air Ambulance has saved many lives and prevented injuries sustained by people from becoming life changing. Whenever one speaks to people who have been involved in accidents or who have been seriously ill and were assisted by the air ambulance service, they cannot speak highly enough of it. Similar sentiments have also been expressed by workers in the emergency services. In particular, I was approached by the stationmaster of the Cashel fire service, who appealed to me to raise the matter with the Minister.

First, I acknowledge the value of the air ambulance service. I will take as an example an incident in Cashel not too long ago when a person needed urgent intervention. We hear much about the golden hour when it comes to the response given to a person with a traumatic injury. It is a period of time immediately after a traumatic injury during which there is the highest likelihood that prompt medical and surgical treatment will prevent death or life-changing complications. During the incident of which I am speaking, the individual concerned was airlifted to University Hospital Limerick, UHL, which took just 17 minutes from Cashel. If one were to go instead by road, it would take 50 to 60 minutes. I have also spoken to representatives of the Irish Community Air Ambulance service about this and they gave an example of how it can take more than two hours to travel from Waterville to Cork University Hospital, CUH, by road. From my own town in Cashel, it will take more than an hour to get to Cork. The air ambulance cuts that timeframe down to 26 or 27 minutes, so I see where the golden hour comes in.

The service has encountered challenges in recent years, however. Covid-19 had a severe impact on its ability to fundraise, and this is before the issue of added fuel costs comes into it, which I will address shortly. The Irish Community Air Ambulance service approached the Minister about getting some short-term funding in light of the Covid restrictions on fundraising. I understand there was a delay in the Minister acknowledging and responding to a request for a meeting. The delay experience is a matter on which I would like some clarity. I do not expect the Minister of State to give it to me this evening.

It is not the only issue I want to address today, however. The service sought short-term funding for two years at €700,000 per year, which would reduce once fundraising could take place again. It had a plan drawn up. It was well informed about what it needed and how it could progress. After eventually having the meeting with the Minister, the service was more or less told to compete for a tender for the helicopter emergency medical service, HEMS, in the west if it wanted to survive. This is no way to treat such a valuable service. It also raised the question about what happens if it is not successful and is outbid by a commercially minded competitor. What happens to the ground-based doctors' service when they know it would likely not be able to survive? While I do not want to say too much about the tender process, what commitment will the Minister of State give to ensuring the future of the highly valuable service provided by the Irish Community Air Ambulance?

To reinforce my point, as I referred to earlier, I want to touch on and raise the issue of fuel costs. The Irish Community Air Ambulance service was called out more than 500 times last year, which was considerably up on the previous year. Now it has the soaring cost of fuel, which it told me has increased from 70 cent per litre to €1.47, resulting in annual costs soaring from €80,000 per annum to between €140,000 and €150,000 per year. Yet it appears that it is being forced to engage in a tender process because, for some reason, there appears to be an approach within the Department that effectively tells it to sink or swim.

We cannot allow this kind of attitude to be adopted by Government. The service needs to be funded whatever the outcome. Lives should not be put at risk for the sake of such small sums as we are talking about here, at €150,000 for more than two years. The importance of the Irish Community Air Ambulance service cannot be overemphasised, nor can the challenging situation in which it finds itself. I understand some funding has been given through the Department but sustainability is what we are talking about here. We are also talking about the Government not throwing such a valuable service to the lions of commercial activity and letting it sink or swim in the process. I need to hear the Government is committed to the continuation of the Irish Community Air Ambulance service and similarly that the Minister of State is committed to playing her role in saving the lives and well-being of the thousands of people who owe everything to this service.

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