Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Last October, I raised with the Taoiseach’s Fianna Fáil predecessor the case of a young boy in Castleblayney who was seriously injured in a football match and had to wait three hours before an ambulance arrived. The then Tánaiste informed the House that he could not understand why it would take so long but set out very clearly that things were improving and all the great things the Government was doing. A fortnight ago, another young boy in Monaghan town was seriously injured in a football match. He lay screaming in agony for two hours and 20 minutes before an ambulance arrived. As for the lived realities of people in this situation, the only thing the Government has really done that has had an impact is change the target response times for ambulance services. If Fine Gael is in power next year, how long will children be left waiting for ambulances?

See this speech in context