Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Lenihan, to the House to discuss the important issue of the level of ambulance cover in County Clare. I am particularly concerned about the level of cover in two areas — Scarriff and Shannon. The Minister of State might be aware that the Scarriff catchment area comprises my back yard, in effect. The facility that was developed in the area in 2003 is very good. There is a population of approximately 10,000 in the Scarriff catchment area, which covers 601 sq. km. The two closest ambulance bases are located 35 km away in Ennis and 40 km away in Limerick. The Minister will accept this is a considerable distance and that there is a need for enhanced cover.

The current problem concerns staffing. A good ambulance base was built but staff are rostered for just 19 hours per day, with no service from 7 p.m. to midnight. This is a critical period, particularly at weekends, and problems have resulted. There has been consistency in the incidence of accidents in the Scarriff catchment area between 7 p.m. to midnight, when, effectively, no service has been available. In the past ten days, a serious road traffic accident occurred within 200 m of the depot in Scarriff. Two ambulances were parked outside the depot but due to the lack of 24-hour rostering at the ambulance base, an ambulance had to be dispatched from Limerick. This resulted in an unnecessary delay in bringing a critically injured man to hospital.

I have the utmost faith in the ambulance personnel and the work they do — they provide a very good service. However, the reality is that the service is not provided on a 24-hour basis. I hope the Tánaiste and the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Lenihan, will put funding in place without delay to bring the east Clare ambulance service into line with that in the rest of County Clare and the mid-west, where ambulance bases are staffed on a 24-hour basis. I am aware that the mid-west ambulance development plan proposes to upgrade the Scarriff service to a 24-hour service. I ask that the Minister considers upgrading this service immediately to take account of the urgent need that has been established in recentweeks, given the incidence of several serious accidents.

I am also concerned about the situation at Shannon, the second largest town in Clare, which has a population of almost 10,000 people and experiences a further influx of approximately 8,000 to 10,000 individuals who come to Shannon daily to work at the airport, business parks and industrial estate, which is the largest industrial estate outside Dublin. The airport is the most western airport in Europe and is used as a landing base for aircraft emergencies in the north Atlantic.

It might surprise some to know that there is no ambulance base at Shannon and that the current service is provided from depots in Limerick and Ennis. The mid-west ambulance development plan proposes that an ambulance base will be put in place at Shannon but I have been contacted by several people concerned about the delay. In a number of cases, individuals due to be collected by the ambulance service had died by the time ambulances arrived. I am not suggesting that had an ambulance got there on time, it would have saved lives, or that the ambulance personnel at the scene did not do all they could. However, the incidents have caused a level of trauma for the families of the deceased with regard to what might have happened had the ambulances arrived more quickly. It would be best to deal with the concerns as quickly as possible by putting in place the ambulance service. I ask the Minister to expedite the establishment of the base at Shannon with the appropriate level of staff to ensure that no unreasonable delays occur in dispatching an ambulance to persons in need in the Shannon area.

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I take this matter on behalf of my colleague, the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney. I thank Senator Dooley for raising the issue. Under the Health Act 2004, the Health Service Executive, HSE, has the responsibility to manage and deliver, or arrange to be delivered on its behalf, health and personal social services. This includes responsibility for the provision of ambulance services.

There have been a number of developments in the HSE mid-western area ambulance service in recent years. With regard to the upgrading of the ambulance service at Scarriff, the HSE has advised that a new ambulance base commenced operations in the town in June 2003. The new base allowed the executive to increase the number of emergency medical technicians employed from two to six. This reduced the amount of on-call cover from 55 hours to 16 hours per week, resulting in a more efficient and effective response to patient needs. The HSE mid-western region has included a request for funding to fully eliminate on-call service in its service plan 2005 and its recently completed development plan for the ambulance service. Requests for ambulance service developments are being considered by the HSE in the context of its priority requirements for 2006.

The HSE mid-western area has four ambulance stations in County Clare. The Shannon area is traditionally serviced from Limerick and Ennis. In the development plan for the ambulance service, the HSE mid-western area takes into account the future service requirements for the region and it proposes the establishment of a new ambulance station for the Shannon area. Other developments in the HSE mid-western area include the upgrading of the command and control centre in Limerick, which opened in May 2004, and the extension and refurbishment of the ambulance base in Ennis in March 2005. Additional funding was provided in 2005 to complete the implementation of two-person crewing in the region.

Much has been achieved in the development of the service, although I recognise that much remains to be done. It is essential to maintain the progress that has been made and to continue the process of service development so that effective pre-hospital emergency care is accessible to those who need it most, when and where it is required. I realise this is not the first occasion on which Senator Dooley has raised the question in the House of ambulance provision in east County Clare. The Minister is committed to working towards the improvements the Senator is anxious to see realised in this area.

Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for addressing the matter. I ask him to continue the effort to ensure the funding is put in place without delay. As he stated, it is a matter of moving to the next stage in terms of upgrading. We are happy to know the funding has been included in the plan going forward, but it is important to move to the next stage. I am sure the Minister of State will do his utmost to ensure this happens without delay.