Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The National Ambulance Service (NAS) has in recent years undertaken an ambitious strategic reform programme to transform from a traditional emergency conveyance service to a more agile mobile medical service. As part of this effort the NAS have placed a significant emphasis on increasing capacity, with rolling recruitment campaigns for student and qualified paramedics. NAS recruitment efforts seek to attract suitable candidates both nationally and internationally to the service.

Since the commencement of the last NAS Strategic Plan in 2016, NAS staffing has grown by 644 WTEs or 38% to 2,338 WTEs as of January 2024.

As the Deputy will be aware, the NAS provides prehospital emergency and intermediate care services in line with standards set by the Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council (PHECC) - the regulator of prehospital emergency care in Ireland. PHECC publish clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) and recognise institutions that provide prehospital emergency care training and education in Ireland. PHECC also maintain a statutory register of all pre-hospital emergency care practitioners practicing in Ireland.

For practitioners who obtained their professional pre-hospital emergency care qualification outside of Ireland, they may apply to PHECC to have their qualifications and experience assessed for recognition purposes. As there is no automatic recognition of qualifications from other jurisdictions, PHECC require that each practitioner be assessed on an individual case-by-case basis.

As this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive (HSE) to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible with any further pertinent information it may have.