Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Ag leanacht ón díospóireacht sin maidir le cúrsaí tithíochta, some 10,000 men, women and children are waiting for homes in Galway city.

A recent report has shown that there are 3,593 households waiting for homes, including 159 applicants from the county area. Of these, some 2,799 households are waiting for two-bedroom accommodation while 554 are waiting for three-bedroom accommodation, etc. We have a crisis in housing.

I found it galling in the extreme to hear a Senator on the national airwaves talking about homelessness this morning when the same Senator is party to the Government policies that are creating the situation that is causing the crisis. We need transparency and we need to ensure that the public is aware of our political affiliations when we are making statements in public. I seek the Leader's views on the matter. It is incumbent on everyone to make it clear when making statements. If a person is party to a third-party group or an NGO, etc., and speaking on its behalf, and if that person is the Whip of a Government party, then the person should make that known. This is relevant to the debate and people need to see where we are coming from politically on these issues. I content that Government policies are causing the problems to which the Senator referred. I call for a debate on homelessness. It is long overdue and I do not disagree with the points the Senator was making. I agree with Senator Kelly on many of these issues but we need to see that Government policy is part of the problem rather than the solution.

I wish to draw attention to the chaos in the ambulance services in the west. Last week or the week before, five ambulances were stuck in the accident and emergency department at University Hospital Galway at the same time due to delays in the hospital. The average waiting time for the ambulance waiting crews was from two to three hours and they were unavailable to respond to emergency calls, regardless of how serious.

I am told a stabbing incident took place on the Headford Road in Galway and there was no ambulance available in the city. The person involved had to be brought to the hospital in a Garda regional support unit car because the nearest ambulance was 20 minutes away. A new base was opened in Tuam last year but the base is empty 98% of the time. There is no cover for sick leave or holiday leave during the day. Therefore, when a person gets sick there is no one to cover for him that day and there are no new paramedics coming in.

The ambulance services are in chaos. People's lives are being put in jeopardy. The issue gets kicked to touch any time we raise it. We need a serious debate on the matter. Lives are at stake. People who are working in the services and trying to make ends meet are being put under pressure. This is a tragedy waiting to happen. We need an urgent debate on the state of our ambulance services. It should cover how they can be reinforced, how more resources can be put in place to ensure that everyone, no matter where they live geographically, has access to the services and how ambulances are being held up in the way I have outlined.