Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for her response. I also want to thank the members of the NAS in Cork for their work and commitment. The response is positive in so far as it contains a commitment to resume the service. While this is not the Minister of State’s area of responsibility, I ask her to ensure that we receive a resumption date. A definite date is required because, as we all know, with the greatest respect, this could linger in HSE never-never land and might never happen. The service might never resume and we want to avoid that because the HSE paramedic motorbike unit saves lives. If such a service is allowed to continue in Dublin, despite staffing issues, then the same should apply in Cork. I ask for equity of treatment because this is about saving lives. It is about providing this service seven days a week, 24 hours a day. I ask the Minister of State to go back to the HSE to get a definitive date. As Paul Reid tweeted on 18 July 2019, “These guys save peoples lives every day”. They sure do.