Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

One of the great frustrations of being a Member of this House are the padded answers that tell you everything except what you need to know and that address everything except what you addressed. What I wanted to speak about was the urgent need to provide funding to the NAS to enable it to provide ambulance services on offshore islands. This issue has been raised by the doctors who service the islands. In particular, it has been raised with me by the doctor who serves Clare Island, Inis Toirc and Inis Bigil. It has also been raised with me by the doctors on the Aran Islands and those who serve Inisbofin.

The Minister of State did not really provide an answer. Let us take the example of Inisbofin. Thousands of people go there every day during the summer and many hire bicycles. There are those who fall or trip. All sorts of things happen.

When there are large numbers of people in a place like that, things will go wrong, as well as islanders getting sick and having their own mishaps or needing attention.

If a person gets sick a mile or two away, it does not matter how well trained you are, there is no vehicle to transport them anywhere. People are doing things because they have to that are not according to standard. This leaves them in a vulnerable position. There is a full-time doctor on Inis Oírr. The training in question is great for having paramedics and so on. On Inis Oírr, however, a qualified doctor and nurse are on hand. They attend to these patients but they tell me that they have no physical way of transporting a person with broken bones or whatever in a safe way - in the only way we would accept on the mainland - as far as the helicopter, plane or boat service.

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for giving me an extra 30 seconds. There were only four real lines in the reply. Everything else was padding. Will the Minister of State indicate if it is intended to ensure that normal high standards will apply on the islands in the context of the evacuation of people from where they fall or where they are as far as the pier or the airfield?

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