Ambulance Service
Dail Éireann — 2026-03-04
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Mary Butler (FF), Waterford

On behalf of the Minister, I thank Deputy McCarthy for the opportunity to update the house on ambulance service provision in east Cork. I thank him for the manner in which he raised it and am sorry to hear about the person who passed away.
As the Deputy will be aware, the National Ambulance Service, NAS, serves east Cork on a 24-7 basis through a highly skilled workforce of paramedics, advanced paramedics and emergency medical technicians; a fleet of modern emergency ambulances, intermediate care vehicles and rapid response vehicles; and 12 ambulances bases covering the entire county of Cork. The region is also served by several NAS alternative care pathways designed to treat patients at the most appropriate level of clinical need while avoiding unnecessary patient conveyances to busy hospital emergency departments where it is not clinically necessary. These pathways include the Pathfinder "See and Treat" service located in Cork, the NAS National Emergency Operations Centre Clinical Hub "Hear and Treat" service, the community paramedic service, and NAS intermediate care services. Further emergency response capacity in the region is provided by the Government-funded Southwest Helicopter Emergency Medical Service, HEMS, operating out of Rathcoole in County Cork. Additional HEMS support is provided in the region by the Irish Coast Guard, RCG, search and rescue service from its bases in Waterford and Shannon on an "as available" basis.
As the Deputy will be aware, this Government has continuously invested in NAS with significant increases in investment in recent years. Government investment in 2026 will support HSE plans to further increase capacity in NAS with 263 new posts representing an investment of €20 million. This will help to improve emergency ambulance response performance, provide for additional intermediate care service capacity and further development and expand NAS alternative care pathways, including community paramedic services right across the county.
Regarding the south west, including east Cork, additional NAS resources for 2026 will include additional emergency vehicles in Cork city and Killarney as well as a further intermediate care vehicle in Bantry. Further investment in 2026 will also include an additional community paramedic post to the region to provide care for lower acuity older patients.
The Deputy will be aware that NAS has also established a new NAS tertiary education training facility in Cork to further support paramedic education and training. I am delighted to learn that the first intake of student paramedics took place in January of this year, which has increased overall training capacity by 20%. That is very welcome. I know it will take a while for them to come through. I should also add that investment in 2026 will also see significant increases in NAS capital funding, including €34 million for renewal and expansion of the fleet of emergency ambulances and other response vehicles.
In addition, the provision of a replacement ambulance station for Midleton is at the design feasibility stage. I know this is very important to the Deputy and other Government colleagues in that area. Overall investment in recent years has also seen total NAS staffing rise to 2,470 at the end of December 2025, which is a rise of 28%.
Notwithstanding that, I appreciate the issue raised by the Deputy concerning east Cork, which is a vast area bordering my own county of Waterford. There are a lot of people on the border area there between Dungarvan west and into Youghal. I suggest the Deputy put some of the specific questions he asked regarding the number of call outs and times into a parliamentary question.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-04/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:43+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-04