James Bannon (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State. Given the time of year, an analogy between the story of Scrooge in A Christmas Carol and the Government's penny-pinching in the health services would not be out of place. These cutbacks are impacting on the lives of the ill and their carers. Following the post-election scandal of broken promises, the health services throughout the country are in a Dickensian state. Basic care is being jeopardised and we are returning to an era where the rights and needs of patients are no longer paramount; they have been sacrificed to dubious remedial action to cover the miscalculations of the Minister for Finance. For every progressive step taken we are taking two steps backwards.

My locality faces a Christmas during which only one ambulance crew will be on duty to cover the greater Longford and midlands area between 6 p.m. and 8 a.m. for the duration of the medical technicians' strike, which started last Monday. This dispute centres on current working arrangements and means the five midlands ambulance stations – Longford, Portlaoise, Tullamore, Athlone and Mullingar – are manned by one crew and an off-duty on call crew between 6 p.m. and 8 a.m. County Longford will be worst affected because, having no 24-hour casualty service, it is obliged to rely on the Midlands General Hospital in Mullingar.

The Midland Health Board has stated it is unable to meet the demands of the emergency medical technicians, EMTs, who are striking in pursuit of their claim in respect of the removal of the current on-call arrangements. EMTs provide a 24 hour ambulance service with up to three duty crews in each station. Between the hours of 6 p.m. and 8 a.m. there is only one duty crew per station plus an on-call off-duty crew who are paid only €2 an hour – Dickens did not know the half of it.

This industrial action is not about money or double time payments. The technicians merely want a commitment from the Midland Health Board to remove the on-call arrangement currently in place. It is unsatisfactory that a person must work a 32 hour shift – as in the case of EMTs in the midlands – working from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., then on-call to 8 a.m. and having to turn up for work again the next day. That is ridiculous in this day and age. There is much concern among the public about what is happening in this regard in the midlands.

SIPTU, which represents the approximately 80 EMTs involved in strike action, recommended as far back as 1993 that the on-call service should be removed from the rota system. Of the 75 technicians polled on the elimination of the on-call service, 67 returned papers. A total of 64 voted in favour, two voted against and there was one spoiled vote.

The level of activity covered by the on-call service as estimated by the Midland Health Board is 6% between the hours of 6 p.m. and 8 a.m. Under an alternative roster system crews would be brought in on an overtime basis in the short term, but in the long term it would necessitate the recruitment and training of eight additional EMTs, which would reduce dependence on overtime and give a continuous service. It comes as no surprise to hear that the Midland Health Board cannot afford to finance these changes from its current budgets. The elimination of the on-call arrangement would require the provision of additional funding of approximately €1.4 million.

This strike comes at a bad time for the Midland Health Board. It has overspent on this year's budget by almost €3.5 million, as outlined by the financial review for the first nine months of this year, with under-funding, the medical card scheme, the winter vomiting bug and the settlement of the national accident and emergency dispute responsible for its financial losses. Ambulance crews provide an essential life saving service. Without their rapid intervention patients will die or, at the very least, suffer undue delay in receiving treatment.