Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I read in newspaper reports last weekend that the expert panel - I use that term loosely - which was looking into the airport pension scheme will meet again to have another look at what might be done to improve the position for the deferred members, in particular, of that scheme. I have been raising this issue in this House for some time, as well as the fact that existing staff will not sign any waivers. While the aforementioned meeting has been reported in the media, there has been no official announcement on this. I have written to the Minister and ask the Leader to use his good offices to encourage the Minister to use the Seanad in the next week or two to provide an update on the situation.

I wish to raise a very serious issue which came to light in recent years but which has been put into sharp focus in recent days, namely, the decision by the Government that the Dublin Fire Brigade ambulance service will be put under the effective control of the HSE. Issues have been raised with regard to the HSE ambulance service although I must emphasise that these issues do not relate to the staff. I know many of the HSE ambulance service staff in Dublin and they are very dedicated people who do an excellent job. The Dublin Fire Brigade ambulance service that is provided in the city and county of Dublin is second to none. If anything, we should be considering rolling out that model across the rest of the country because most of our major towns have fire stations and all of our firefighters are trained to paramedic level, with many trained to advanced paramedic level.

My major concern and that of my party is the fact that the local authority does not want to pay for the Dublin Fire Brigade ambulance service and is throwing that service to the HSE which cannot manage its own ambulance service. This will be to the detriment of people of Dublin. The Government should be looking at the option of a combined emergency service, and this will be part of Fianna Fáil policy in the run-up to the next general election. Such a combined service will ensure that all of our emergency resources are working together. The situation at present appears to be one of the HSE winning a turf war.

The Minister for Health said on 3 March last that he is a big supporter of the Dublin Fire Brigade ambulance service. If he was a real supporter he would have been true to the assurances he gave that nothing would happen without prior consultation with those who would be affected, namely, the Dublin Fire Brigade ambulance staff themselves. There was no consultation whatsoever. The Government is using last year's HIQA report as an excuse to bring about very significant changes which have not been thought through. This situation is extremely serious for the city and county of Dublin. If anything, we should be looking to replicate what is being provided by the Dublin Fire Brigade ambulance service in the other fire brigades all over the country in order to improve response times.

I ask that the Leader invite the Minister for Health to the House to discuss this matter and I will table an amendment to today's Order of Business to the effect-----