Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I add my voice to thanks and commendation to the tireless workers from the National Ambulance Service and our paramedics. It is very clear that lives are being put at risk because of the Government's failure to resource the National Ambulance Service and support our paramedics. The HSE's own standards provide that 80% of life-threatening incidents should be responded to by an ambulance within 19 minutes. In the midlands, that response time has increased by 53% to 29 minutes since 2019. Every ambulance region is further away from meeting the targets that it was in 2019 and this trend needs to be reversed. The outcomes must improve and that needs a multi-annual capacity and workforce plan to meet the needs of patients and improve the ability of the National Ambulance Service to do the job we are asking it to do.

The ambulance service is under serious strain and pressure and this is exactly what the paramedics have said would happen for years at this point. The service has approximately 2,000 paramedics and its own workforce plan lays out the need for more than 1,300 additional staff by the end of next year. It needs to double the staffing complement to more than 4,000 by 2026. The Minister should do the maths. Only 181 patient and clinical care staff started in 2022 and the college has started to train just 472 new recruits since 2019, which is less than 160 per year for a three-year programme. We need to double the number of paramedics in training and engage with qualified paramedics who no longer work in the ambulance service to try to bring them back. Paramedics are burning out. They are absolutely exhausted and that is what makes retention critical to meeting these targets. However, retention plans will fail unless there are more paramedics in general to share the burden.

I have read the amendment tabled by the Government which refers to the established number of alternative care pathways. The Minister failed to mention the record overcrowding and growing waiting lists. He mentioned that parts of the country are not yet seeing improvements. Which parts of the country is he willing to sacrifice?

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