Ambulance Service
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-21
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Cathy Bennett (SF), Cavan-Monaghan

I welcome that additional staff have been employed. It is still not enough, however. More needs to be done. The National Ambulance Service used to make data available to help inform policymakers in coming forward with constructive solutions. Data indicates that the number of people who died by the time an ambulance actually reached their homes was up 70% in the eight years prior to 2024. There were over 95,000 instances in 2022 of people waiting more than one hour. However, when Sinn Féin recently sought updated information, the National Ambulance Service told us that there is no operational imperative to do so and that there is little or no clinical evidence underpinning response-time targets. That is despite coroners having found evidence of ambulance service capacity being the root cause of a person's death. Does the Minister think this information is relevant and important and that it should be made available to Members?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-21/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-21T01:01:08+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-21