619. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether the National Ambulance Service records the duration of time for which no ambulance resource is immediately available for dispatch to a PURPLE or RED category emergency call. [41143/26]
Topics / Ambulance Service
A subject heading for parliamentary questionsAmbulance Service
860 questions from 114 TDs, between 22 January 2025 and 20 October 2026.
860
questions
852 written, 8 oral
114
TDs have asked
11
parties and groups
Independents counted together
5
departments asked
Questions per month
The record holds no questions for August, when the Dáil does not sit.
Jan 2025Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Questions |
|---|---|
| January 2025 | 9 |
| February 2025 | 52 |
| March 2025 | 34 |
| April 2025 | 40 |
| May 2025 | 28 |
| June 2025 | 19 |
| July 2025 | 18 |
| August 2025 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 29 |
| October 2025 | 20 |
| November 2025 | 21 |
| December 2025 | 7 |
| January 2026 | 24 |
| February 2026 | 100 |
| March 2026 | 112 |
| April 2026 | 72 |
| May 2026 | 177 |
| June 2026 | 34 |
| July 2026 | 16 |
| August 2026 | 0 |
| September 2026 | 34 |
| October 2026 | 14 |
Who asks, by party
The party each TD belonged to on the day, in alphabetical order. Parties differ a lot in size, and members of the Government answer questions rather than ask them, so this shows who raised it, not how much a party cares about it.
The TDs who asked most
Members of the Government answer questions rather than ask them. Each question counts once.
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267
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49
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31
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25
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23
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21
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18
Asked of
Debated under the same heading
Debates whose official heading is exactly these words.
The questions
620. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether any internal audit, governance review, or risk assessment has examined the patient safety implications of emergency calls exceeding ambulance allocation KPI thresholds. [41144/26]
621. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether repeated breaches of PURPLE and RED allocation targets are reported to the HSE Board, National Risk Committee, or Department of Health through any formal governance reporting structure. [41145/26]
622. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether ambulance allocation delays are incorporated into any enterprise risk scoring methodology within the HSE or National Ambulance Service. [41146/26]
623. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether any review has been undertaken into the appropriateness of the current ambulance allocation KPI targets of 60% for PURPLE calls and 75% for RED calls. [41147/26]
624. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether the HSE considers it acceptable from a patient safety perspective that approximately 17% of PURPLE emergency calls and 21% of RED emergency calls exceeded national ambulance allocation time thresholds in 2025. [41148/26]
625. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether every ambulance allocation delay beyond the PURPLE 60-second and RED 180-second thresholds is automatically logged within any NAS governance, quality assurance, patient safety, or incident management system; and if so, to provide details. [41176/26]
626. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether repeated breaches of ambulance allocation KPIs at local, regional, or national level trigger any formal escalation mechanism to senior HSE management, the HSE Board, or the Department of Health. [41177/26]
627. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether any adverse clinical outcome review, morbidity review, mortality review, or patient harm assessment process examines whether delayed ambulance allocation formed a contributory factor in patient outcomes. [41178/26]
628. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether the National Ambulance Service maintains any internal threshold defining what constitutes an extreme or critical ambulance allocation delay for governance or patient-safety purposes. [41179/26]
629. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether ambulance allocation delays are monitored by individual call duration bands including delays exceeding 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, or longer. [41180/26]
630. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether any internal reports, dashboards, governance papers, board reports, risk reports, or performance reviews since 2020 have identified ambulance allocation delays as a patient-safety concern. [41181/26]
631. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether the HSE has conducted any analysis correlating ambulance allocation delays with staffing shortages, ambulance availability, emergency department overcrowding, or hospital offload delays. [41182/26]
632. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether any external body other than IAED or PHECC has independently reviewed National Ambulance Service dispatch performance, governance, or KPI compliance since 2020. [41183/26]
633. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether the National Ambulance Service records the longest ambulance allocation delay experienced for PURPLE and RED calls each year. [41184/26]
634. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether the HSE considers compliance with ambulance allocation KPIs to constitute a patient-safety issue, an operational performance issue, or both. [41185/26]
740. Deputy Sorca Clarke asked the Minister for Health when the next exam date for student paramedics will be, in view of the fact that it has now been postponed twice in November and January; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [41346/26]
232. Deputy Joanna Byrne asked the Minister for Health to provide an update on the provision of a new ambulance station in Drogheda; the engagement she has had with the National Ambulance Service, HSE Estates and with her Department to progress the issue. [40498/26]
233. Deputy Joanna Byrne asked the Minister for Health the work that being undertaken to identify a site for a new ambulance station in Drogheda; the potential sites being considered or investigated to date for suitability; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40499/26]
234. Deputy Joanna Byrne asked the Minister for Health the steps needed to ensure the timely provision of a new ambulance station in Drogheda; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40500/26]
1097. Deputy James O'Connor asked the Minister for Health her position regarding the new national ambulance training college for the southern region; the location of the new site; the timeline for completion; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38705/26]
1123. Deputy Donna McGettigan asked the Minister for Health the reason for HSE/National Ambulance Service (NAS) apparently not giving employment to the fully qualified and PHECC registered paramedics on NRS panels whilst the NAS struggles to fill rosters and provide full ambulance cover, including in county Clare; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38795/26]
1144. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether any patient safety review, adverse incident review, or clinical governance review has examined the impact of prolonged ambulance dispatch or allocation delays on patient outcomes since 2020; and if so, to provide details. [38862/26]
1145. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether the National Ambulance Service operates under any internally defined escalation thresholds for excessive dispatch delay, delayed resource allocation, or prolonged queue times for emergency incidents; and if so, to provide details. [38863/26]
1146. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether any review has been conducted regarding whether Ireland's current ambulance dispatch governance framework aligns with international best practice standards in comparable jurisdictions; and if so, to provide details. [38864/26]