Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Lynch, for taking this Adjournment debate. The issue I raise is the ambulance service in County Kerry, in particular in south Kerry where, as of last Tuesday, the service has been changed significantly in a way I believe will have detrimental consequences for patient safety. The issue is simple. Killarney town, which services a huge catchment area, has a population of 20,000. In summer the many visitors swell that population to 40,000 and, at weekends, to 80,000. One of the town's two emergency ambulances has been withdrawn and Killarney and its surrounding areas have emergency cover that is far from satisfactory. After a significant campaign in the Kenmare area we managed to retain that town's ambulance. The ambulance in Caherciveen was also retained. I refer to emergency ambulances. Due to the policy of "dynamic deployment", which means ambulances will be moved as soon as they are activated in other areas, we can see a situation coming about that has happened in other areas such as Midleton, as the Minister of State is well aware, where ambulances are not available when needed.

The loss of an emergency ambulance, namely, the reduction of 25% of cover in the south Kerry area, will have life-threatening consequences. Unfortunately, I may be back in this Chamber to report on incidents and calling for the restoration of the second emergency ambulance in Killarney, as I do now. It services the entire south Kerry area.