The National Ambulance Service and the south Tipperary ambulance service are in a chronic state of frustration due to a lack of personnel. They were promised some interns but now they are told they will not get them until perhaps August. One night last week two ambulances had to come together as there was only one paramedic in each. One ambulance had to be parked so they could go out on a call. That is happening all the time. In addition, the headquarters in the grounds of South Tipperary General Hospital is appalling. A Portakabin is serving 24 staff. They have been looking for a new building for years. They have a site. They do not want to go to the proposed site, for good reason. We badly need supports and personnel. We thank the first responders in my own village of Newcastle. There is a great team there and around the county, who go out in advance of the arrival of paramedics. There are not enough paramedics and ambulances are parked up. There is a chronic shortage of staff and the existing staff are operating in Dickensian conditions. The situation must be seriously examined.

I believe very strongly in the first responder model. The professionalisation of that service has been one of the great changes in healthcare in the past two decades. There has been debate in the House as to what is the best model for the organisation of our ambulance and first responder services. There have been difficulties with recruitment generally across the economy because we are in full employment. That is creating challenges right across all public services and in the private sector as well. I know from the Minister for Health that efforts are being made in recruitment and training to increase the number of people available for employment and to enable us to recruit more people more rapidly.