Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

On Tuesday, an amendment to the Order of Business was made to bring the Minister of State with responsibility for Defence to the Chamber to address the emergency air ambulance service issue. He came and when I asked five questions, he answered none. This is contrast to the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross, who was here yesterday. He was unable to answer questions because of time constraints but he undertook to provide answers individually to people. It is simply not good enough that a Minister of State brought to this House to deal with an emergency refuses to deal with it or answer questions.

Today's edition ofThe Irish Timescarries a letter from a retired captain, Seán McCarthy, who wholeheartedly refutes the position taken by the Minister of State on the recent decision to scale back the air ambulance service. He makes a number of important points. When the service was set up in 2012, military leadership was indicating that pilot retirements were having an adverse effect on the Air Corps. As we well know, this has worsened over the years with the loss of experience aviators, technicians, and air traffic controllers. The squadron that has kept the emergency air ambulance running since 2012 is down to two crews when it is supposed to have ten. Nevertheless, in 2015, the White Paper on Defence stated the emergency air ambulance service should be made permanent and sustainable, and a project group was to be set up by the Department but this has never happened.