Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate that the Minister of State is taking this matter on behalf of the Minister. The reply written for the Minister stated, "I reassure the House that the Government is strongly committed to supporting the strengthening and reform". We are being told the Minister did not even respond to the service for a couple of months when it asked him first, although he did eventually come back to it.

The importance of the Irish Community Air Ambulance service cannot be overemphasised. Out of 500 calls last year, consider the lives it would have saved. Like I said, it looked for €750,000 per year over a two-year period, which is only €150,000 over two years for 500 calls and the number of lives it saves. It is not just me. The fire brigade and ambulance crews will tell the Minister of State that, daily when they go to serious incidents, they are able to call on the ambulance service and the ambulance lands. Like I said, it can have a patient from Cashel to Cork or Limerick within the space of 17 to 25 minutes. All of them, even the doctors, will tell the Minister of State that golden hour is vital to saving lives and making sure someone is not seriously injured for the rest of his or her life.

Like I said, we have heard it here. To be honest, and I am not blaming the Minister of State, I am kind of sick of listening to Covid-19 being given as an example of why we cannot do anything. One of the biggest costs, which we have said, is the price of fuel. We all understand the service has not been able and that it is community based and fundraises every year. It is only the past two years with Covid-19 that it has been caught. It has looked for that kind of funding for two years to cover the cost of fuel for its helicopters. Surely, with all the money we are talking about for running the country and running services, that kind of small money should be a priority to make sure we try to save lives or give anybody who is involved in a serious accident or incident as good a chance as anybody of getting there within that golden hour.

See this speech in context