Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)

I raise with the Taoiseach a reply to a parliamentary question I received from the Minister for Health. In the last year and a half, since January 2024, just five paramedics and 12 emergency medical technicians, EMTs, have been hired by the National Ambulance Service. This is despite the fact that a recent report states that there are 1,000 staff shortages. There is a major crisis in the National Ambulance Service. There are qualified people sitting on panels in Mayo and right across the country and they are trained to save lives. Instead of saving lives, they are pouring pints in local pubs.

This is totally wrong. We need to address this issue. We need to recruit these qualified personnel, take them off panels and recruit them to address the staff shortages in the National Ambulance Service.

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