Local Sinn Féin TD Brian Stanley says that emergency ambulance response times in the Midlands have deteriorated.
Figures obtained by Sinn Féin this week show that the response times have increased by 45% in the past two years.
According to the Laois TD, this is down to the lack of available staff rather the performance of existing staff.
He said: “50% of the emergency callouts should be responded to within 19 minutes.
“However, in the Midlands the response times for emergency calls has increased from an average of 20 minutes to 28 minutes.
“This compares to an average of 21 minutes in the Eastern Region.
“Despite the best efforts of ambulance personal, response times continue to deteriorate.
“The crux of the matter is that we have only half the number of ambulances that Scotland have, despite having a similar population, and our service is understaffed.
“Not enough ambulance personal are being trained and recruited and it is estimated that an extra 2000 staff need to be recruited over the next 5 years.
“The number of people being recruited is not keeping in pace with the amount of personal that are retiring or leaving. Measures are also needed to improve recruitment and retention of staff.
“I have been raising this consistently over the past few years with the HSE and the National Ambulance Service.
“The HSE and the National Ambulance Service need to redouble their efforts to encourage people to take up training for positions, in order to deal with the shortfall in staff.
“Government also needs to budget for a significant increase in the number of ambulances in the State.”
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