Ambulance services ‘at breaking point’, Dail told amid strike action

The Government has refused to resolve long-standing pay, conditions and staffing issues in the National Ambulance Service, the leader of Sinn Fein has said.

The coalition came under similar charges from other opposition parties during Tuesday’s Leaders’ Questions session which largely focused on the strike by Siptu and Unite paramedics and emergency medical technicians within the NAS.

Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald said the Government has “left the ambulance system stretched to breaking point” with “overworked paramedics under extreme pressure”.

Speaking during Leaders’ Questions in the Dail, Ms McDonald told the Taoiseach the work stoppage could have been avoided but accused him of letting the situation “fester” since a 2020 independent report recommendation of modernisation of ambulance services.

She said: “People who save lives are on the picket line.”

She said: “Indeed, yesterday, at a meeting in Clare, the minister shocked people when she referred to paramedics and EMTs as ‘ambulance drivers’.

“And there’s the problem. In a nutshell, your Government is blind to the expertise and skill of those who save lives every day.

“You ask ambulance workers to upskill and then refuse to pay for it properly.”

The Taoiseach characterised the contribution as “distortion” and “very dishonest” presentation of the paramedic strike.

Mr Martin said the State has invested “very significantly” in the NAS.

He said negotiations had arrived at an agreed outcome that was recommended to the membership by unions, but added he accepted that members had been entitled to vote against it.

The Taoiseach said the only way to resolve the dispute was through dialogue and “exhausting the well-established industrial relations machinery of the State”, namely the Workplace Relations Commission or the Labour Court.

Labour leader Ivana Bacik said ambulance drivers and paramedics are struggling “to make ends meet on their current pay rates”.

“They have my solidarity and that of my Labour party colleagues today.”

Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns said successive Governments had not acknowledged the upskilling within the NAS from “essentially being a patient-transfer service to providing what is nearly A&E-style services”.

She said she had spoken to paramedics who went on a picket line after finishing a 12-hour shift.

Also speaking during Leaders’ Questions, she said: “These are workers who go above and beyond to do the most important work, who even volunteer after they finish work to provide that crucial emergency care.

“They spoke about how much they had to upskill over the years so they can provide better and faster treatment to patients and how the evolving nature of their role has not been recognised by this or any previous Government.”

Ms Cairns said years of underfunding and understaffing had led to hours-long delays in the ambulance service.

She said personnel numbers need to be doubled and said “stretched” services are having “very serious consequences for patients”.

Ms Cairns called on the Government to drop pre-conditions around its pay proposal.

She said workers had been asked to accept there would be a reduction in the number of trained paramedics in a crew – and because of the conditions around overtime, that some of their pay might be decreased.

He told reporters at Leinster House: “The responsibility for the industrial action they were forced to take lies absolutely squarely at the door of the Government and the HSE.”

However, the Taoiseach as said “no one can charge Government with acting in bad faith” over the ambulance strike.

Responding to Ms Bacik in the Dail, Mr Martin said the Government had entered into “good faith negotiations” but a “comprehensive outcome” recommended to union members had been defeated.

Calling for a return to dialogue, he said: “We acted in good faith, and will continue to act in good faith.”