Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I am shocked to hear Senator Keogan say the only option is Sinn Féin. There are many colours to the political rainbow. The Senator also has very good Independent Members sitting behind her.

I wanted to speak about the budget but, sadly, I was at an event on Sunday and I must talk about that instead. The quarter final of the senior hurling club championship took place. My parish team of Inagh-Kilnamona was playing Éire Óg, the Ennis town team. One of our best players, Jason McCarthy, was injured. We waited almost an hour for an ambulance to come in our county's capital town of Ennis.There are two issues here. First, why does it take nearly an hour for an ambulance to travel from Ennis to Ennis? This is not to mention those living in Carrigaholt, Doonbeg, Mountshannon and Ballyvaughan. Second, why does the GAA think it is okay to have our best, brightest and fittest playing hurling at that level and not have an ambulance on call?

I did some research on this. For €350, an ambulance can be booked from bodies such as Civil Defence or the Red Cross, both of which could badly do with the money, to be on call for the game but that was not done. We each paid €15 at the gate to attend the game. The cost of the ambulance would be covered by 24 ticket holders out of the thousands of people who were there. Luckily, Jason McCarthy will be okay. He has to have surgery but to be left on a pitch for almost an hour is just not good enough. What is happening to our ambulance service if we cannot get an ambulance from a hospital that is probably 1.4 km away from the pitch? If it took nearly an hour for an ambulance to arrive at that incident, what will happen with others? I want to again highlight the issue. I appeared on television about five years ago regarding this issue, when the programme needed someone in Clare who could speak Irish for TG4's "Nuacht". I talked about this seven or eight years ago and it is still an issue.

It is not fair on our hurlers to treat them as if they should not have an ambulance on call. It also highlights the appalling lack in our ambulance service. A girl who fell down a little cliff in Lahinch a few months ago had to wait four hours for an ambulance. She was in Lahinch, which is half an hour from Ennis. If a hurler is waiting 50 minutes on a pitch for an ambulance in our county town, where we have a hospital and an ambulance service, it does not say a lot about the ambulance service for all the people who live in Clare or for how the GAA values its players.

I played camogie for Clare many years ago. We had a little training and we had to fight for a pitch because we were girls, which is still an issue, but the lads and girls dedicate their lives to this amateur sport for which they do not get paid any money. They change their diet and where they work, and their whole lives revolve around the club game. It is not just a county game. Even at club level, it is a serious commitment. Jason McCarthy, and all the hurlers, camogie players, Gaelic football players, and those in whatever sport we are talking about, deserve better than this. We need to have an ambulance on call. What is wrong with booking the Red Cross to have it there? I wish Jason McCarthy a speedy recovery.