Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I commend Deputy Cullinane for tabling this motion. I commend the staff in our National Ambulance Service for the significant, tireless work they do across the length and breadth of the country. In the north west, this has been an issue for decades.

In isolated rural areas the wait times for ambulances have gone through the roof. We see what the averages are but averages can sometimes disguise particularly long individual cases. People have waited an hour or an hour and a half for an ambulance in some instances.

Dynamic deployment is at the core of this. It has been a disaster for people. When we hear of dynamic deployment we think of NATO manoeuvres in the South Pacific but that is not what it means. It means that an ambulance based in Carrick-on-Shannon will be called to south Roscommon to attend a call, from where it will then be called to Galway to attend a call and then on to Mayo to attend another call. Ambulances travel from place to place around the country. It is happening everywhere and local services have been depleted. We see this in areas up and down the country, yet the Government seems to be blind to it and continues with this process that puts pressure on services and has ambulances travelling up and down the country to attend calls far outside of their areas. The service is simply not adequate. There are not enough ambulances, there is no plan in place to provide enough staff for the ambulances that are available and there are not enough ambulance stations. Many of them are very rural and isolated and they cannot get to them in time.

The motion calls for a multi-annual capacity and workforce plan to be put in place immediately. That needs to happen with urgency. This issue has an impact on people. I have been contacted by many people over the years who waited for long periods. I remember a woman who had an accident in Carrick-on-Shannon. A car hit her on the road and she waited for an hour and a half before an ambulance came, yet there is supposed to be an ambulance station in the town. This causes people stress and inconvenience. It destroys their confidence that we will have a health service that can deliver for people.

At Sligo University Hospital and every other hospital in the country queues of ambulances build up outside as patients wait to be admitted because the emergency department is clogged up. The Minister needs to take this seriously and treat it with urgency.

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