Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I again wish to express our deepest condolences to the Deputy on the death of Mary, his mother-in-law, and to the Fehilly and Crowe families. I also want to acknowledge the spirit in which he has raised these issues because at no stage did he criticise the men and women of the National Ambulance Service or our other first responders. Rather, he asked real questions, which he hopes will be addressed.

I welcome the opportunity to address the House on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, regarding the Deputy's request for information on the National Ambulance Service's capacity in the County Clare region. This year's allocation to our National Ambulance Service of €285 million includes €8 million in new service developments to deliver up to 180 additional posts, representing a significant increase on the 2024 allocation.

As far as County Clare is concerned, the National Ambulance Service serves the county from bases located in Ennis, Ennistymon, Kilrush and Scarriff. These bases are staffed by a highly skilled workforce of pre-hospital emergency care practitioners, including paramedics, advanced paramedics and emergency medical technicians. In addition, the National Ambulance Service operates a fleet of modern emergency ambulances, intermediate care vehicles and rapid response vehicles from these bases. County Clare also benefits from the National Ambulance Service's national emergency operation centre clinical hub. It has five active community first responder groups operating in the county, as well as aeromedical support provided by the HSE helicopter service based in Rathcoole, County Cork, and the Irish Coast Guard search and rescue service from its base in Shannon.

Patient demand for the National Ambulance Service continues to rise nationally and in the western region, which covers Clare. In 2024, there were nearly 430,000 urgent and emergency calls received from the public, representing an 8% increase nationally on the previous year. In the National Ambulance Service's western region, call volume similarly increased by 8%, or 7,781 calls, during the same period. Despite a significant increase in demand, ambulance response performance has improved nationally and in the National Ambulance Service mid-west region, including Clare, compared to its performance in 2023.

The HSE national service plan sets out key performance indicators for cardiac or other potentially life-threatening calls to be responded to by ambulance in fewer than 90 minutes. In 2024, the National Ambulance Service's national performance for HSE key performance indicators, KPIs, was 73% against a target of 75% for purple calls, that is, life-threatening cases and 46% against a target of 45% for red calls, that is, calls to be responded to by an ambulance in less than 90 minutes. In the mid-west region, the National Ambulance Service's performance met the purple call KPI of 75% and exceeded the red call KPI of 49%. Performance in both call categories last year represents an improvement on performance in 2023.

The nub of the issue is that, in line with international best practice, the National Ambulance Service deploys resources nationally, including in Clare, dynamically. This means that it prioritises resource allocation to the highest acuity calls, which require an immediate emergency response in direct response to patient needs. The National Ambulance Service's dynamic deployment means that Clare may also be supported by bases from neighbouring counties to ensure adequate coverage and rostering for emergency ambulances and rapid response vehicles.

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