Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge that a lot, if not all, of our healthcare staff are exhausted at the moment and many feel burnt out. Ambulance staff are among those. It has been a relentless three years for people who work in our health service. Many of us went from lock down to unlock, and perhaps got to spend time at home or work from home, whereas our health services have been really stretched. It has been an extraordinary three years with a pandemic. Now that the pandemic has entered a different phase, all of the unmet healthcare needs that we could not deal with during the pandemic have boomeranged and there is a huge snapback in demand for healthcare. This has made it extremely difficult for healthcare staff. That is not unique to Ireland. As the Deputy will be aware, it is also the case in the North, in Britain and all around the world.

On the rapid response vehicle, as I have said, I do not have a reply on that today for the Deputy. The Minister will come back to the Deputy on that and we will see what we can do.

See this speech in context