Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I spoke yesterday to a paramedic who told me that morale in the ambulance service is in the gutter due to the long-running and ongoing recruitment and retention crisis. We have seen the recent capacity review by the HSE to show that we need to double the workforce in the next three years. We know industrial action has now been voted for. We know that the director of the National Ambulance Service has written to management across the State to say he is drafting a cost containment plan which will include a pause on recruitment to some posts. Paramedics are under huge pressure. There is a particular issue in the west and in the midlands. I know that a recent presentation on call volumes put north Roscommon, Boyle and Carrick at the top of the list, yet it seems an additional resource is going in elsewhere in the west. I am sure the Taoiseach will agree that where it is proven resources are needed, that is exactly where resources should go. I appreciate that is a specific issue, but on the wider issue of recruitment and retention, we seem to have a crisis in the retained fire service, the ambulance service and the Garda. I ask that the Taoiseach look at that crisis of recruitment and retention across our emergency responders. It very much needs to be looked at.

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