Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As I understand it, the helicopter service is available. Earlier, I addressed the specific issue of emergency care on the islands and spoke about the significant increases in NAS resourcing in recent years. I also outlined the levels of additional investment in 2025 for the NAS following budget 2025. That is an increase of more than €33 million.

I will now mention the ambitious programme of reform the NAS has embarked upon in recent years to transform from a traditional patient conveyance service to an agile, fit-for-purpose emergency medical service. That is what the emergency services are doing. In order to meet the demands of our growing and ageing population, the NAS has developed a number of initiatives including community paramedics, increased capacity in the national emergency operations centre clinical hub, expansion of community first responder schemes nationally and development of a number of alternative pathways. These pathways, for instance, since October 2020 have treated more than 116,000 patients with 40% of patients not requiring subsequent treatment at hospital emergency departments. The programme of reform has also seen significant rise in Government investment with an increase of €60 million in the annual allocation since 2020. As outlined in budget 2025, there will be further additional funding to allow for expansion of these pathways and other essential initiatives throughout the country. The islands also need people who are trained to deal with and respond to emergencies.

See this speech in context