Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Kerrane. I will take back the points she raised to the Minister. In my opening statement I concentrated for the most part on ambulance resourcing and some recent alternative care paths in County Roscommon. I will now focus on the service nationally and touch on the investment in our National Ambulance Service and its future plans.

This Government has invested very significantly in the National Ambulance Service in recent years. This year the total National Ambulance Service budget will comprise €227.7 million. This represents an overall increase of over €58 million or nearly 35% from that allocated in 2019, which is the last complete year unaffected by Covid-19. As a direct result of this investment, the National Ambulance Service workforce has also grown substantially, with over 2,300 whole-time equivalents as of December 2023, which represents an overall staff increase of some 37% since December 2015.

Such investment has also allowed for the National Ambulance Service to undergo a significant programme of strategic reform from a conventional emergency response and conveyance service to an agile, mobile, medical service involving the introduction and development of a range of "See and Treat" and "Hear and Treat" alternative care pathways designed to treat growing numbers of patients at the most appropriate level of clinical need in the most appropriate care settings. I can tell the House a new National Ambulance Service strategic plan is at an advanced stage of development. The new strategy will look to build on recent progress and further align the NAS more closely to wider healthcare reforms with a focus also on bridging gaps between patient demand and available capacity.

I conclude by reiterating my acknowledgement of the professionalism and dedication of the NAS’s talented workforce, including in Roscommon, and to thank it for the essential service it continues to deliver for us all every day.

See this speech in context