Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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29. To ask the Minister for Health the positive impact on Galway city and the west of Galway county, following the decision to staff an ambulance station in Tuam, County Galway; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8001/15]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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In 2015, a €5.4m budget increase has been provided to the National Ambulance Service to help address service gaps and provision has been made for 50 paramedic posts in the West. Some of these posts will be used to staff ambulance stations at Tuam and Mulranny. Others will assist in the move from on-call to on-duty rostering. On-call rostering means paramedics remain at home waiting to be called out, which on average results in a 20 minute delay in rolling out the ambulance. In moving to on-duty rostering, our crews are in their stations or vehicles, ready to go immediately on dispatch.

We also intend to expand the number of community first response teams, particularly in more rural and sparsely populated areas. These are volunteer groups in the community, who are registered and trained to a certified standard. We have over 100 such teams operating around the country at present but we need more and we are working on that.

Also of particular benefit to western counties is the Emergency Aeromedical Support (EAS) Service. The EAS is specifically targeted at the west and provides rapid access to appropriate treatment for very seriously ill patients, where this might be difficult to achieve by road. I am currently looking at proposals to establish the service on a permanent basis and I am in discussion with my colleague, the Minister for Defence, on the matter.

The Deputy will be aware that there are currently three major reviews of ambulance services: the recently published HIQA review and the awaited national capacity and Dublin ambulance service reviews. These three reviews, when taken together, will provide us with very good information which will help drive further service improvement. I have therefore asked the HSE to prepare an action plan on completion of the three reviews, with timelines to realise a new vision for our ambulance services.