Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his response. I will raise a few points in the short time I have.

The retained fire services are well placed to assist the HSE with responses to such life-threatening emergency calls. There does not seem to be any obstacle to that. The National Ambulance Service is simply protecting its patch. I have not heard of any engagement between it and the fire services. The Minister of State noted "it is critical that local authority and fire services' resources are not inappropriately diverted". It is not that they are inappropriately diverted. This person died while retained fire servicemen and women were sitting at home on Christmas Day knowing that an incident was taking place. It was not possible to get an ambulance onto the island. We are playing politics with people. The National Ambulance Service does not have the capability to contact the fire service. The Minister of State knows where I stand on the HSE. It is bloated at the moment. What I am trying to do here? As a local representative I would like, if possible, to meet the National Ambulance Service, the HSE, Cork County Council and the fire service in east Cork to tell them we need a strategic plan. We are short of certain resources but have the capability to fill those gaps. Yet the Minister of State's concluding statement, as provided, states "Fire services must be confident in their ability to balance commitments so as not to impede capacity to respond to their core statutory responsibility of fire service provision". I, the Minister of State and most people know that most people who are in the fire service, the ambulance service or who are nurses, doctors or clinicians get into it for the love of it and for the attachment they have to it. At some stage in life, something affected them and they wanted to do better for society. The reason I raise this issue is to ask the Minister of State whether it would be reasonable in my capacity to meet these people to address the gaps that are there. People are dying because of red tape between three agencies, when it could be simple to fix. These people are already trained and are willing to respond. I have done the defibrillator courses and so on, so I know what to do. The greatest thing in life is giving life and protecting people. I would like to know if that is possible.

See this speech in context