John Kelly (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I refer to the revelations relating to Anglo Irish Bank. Apart from the damage that was done to the country financially, we need to take into consideration the number of people who lost their homes, the number of people who committed suicide as a result of financial distress, the number of marriage break-ups and all the social issues caused by the actions of a number of these people. On that basis I believe it is important to call for a proper banking inquiry.

Senator Mark Daly referred to the ambulance service and I fully agree with him. I have said in the House before that it is a crime in Dublin if there is no ambulance on site within eight minutes, but in rural Ireland one is lucky to get an ambulance within 45 minutes to an hour, on average. To me, this is a HIQA double standard, because the standard is eight minutes in Dublin but it does not really matter outside of Dublin. If there was another service in rural Ireland that was not up to the standard required by HIQA, then, as we have seen in the past, the authority would quickly shut it down. Questions must be answered in respect of the ambulance service. It seems to be Government policy to share services and yet there is a difficulty between the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government and the Department of Health with regard to co-locating ambulances at fire stations. Apparently, the Department of Health owes the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government money for the work of the fire services in the past. These are simple things which should be easily resolved within Government in order that we roll out and provide a proper ambulance service nationwide, especially in rural Ireland