Tipperary emergency workers to be taxed for bringing vehicles home

Tipperary councillors are calling for more action to be taken regarding the ambulance services in Tipperary.

A notice of motion was raised by Cllrs Micheál Lowry and Shane Lee at the recent meeting of the Thurles Municipal District.

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The councillors believe that the ambulance and emergency services in the county are inadequate, with only signs of regression showing currently.

In their motion, Cllrs Lowry and Lee said: “Calling on this district to seek an urgent update from the HSE National Ambulance Service as to how it is addressing the lack of resources for emergency response in the Thurles district, when they envisage the Thurles and Roscrea ambulance bases will be fully crewed and confirm the number of Advance paramedics currently rostered in both Thurles & Roscrea vs the numbers in 2016.”

Currently, the average response time for an ambulance nationwide is 19 minutes, a stark contrast when compared to the response time for an ambulance in Tipperary, which sits between 90 and 120 minutes.

Cllr Lee spoke personally about someone he knew losing their life as a result of the poor response times to emergency calls made in Tipperary.

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Cllr Lowry spoke of an apparent reluctance to train and upskill workers from the HSE.

As well as this, Thurles currently has no advanced paramedic.

Cllr Jim Ryan said during the meeting that talks need to be had about the services, that they were in crisis, crumbling, and falling asunder, which he says in part is due to the pay not being enough, and the unsociable hours the workers must work.

In a decision made recently, it was announced that drivers who bring their emergency vehicles home following a shift will now be charged a benefit-in-kind tax for bringing the vehicle home.

This came to the dismay of several of the councillors, as many of the paramedics affected by this will often answer emergency calls after work hours and respond, free of charge.

The councillors expressed their desire to write to Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe, to ask that he reverses this decision, stating that lives will be lost as a result of this, due to paramedics who would usually respond to our-of-hours calls no longer wishing to bring their vehicles home.

Tipperary Live contacted the HSE for comment following the conclusion of the meeting.

A spokesperson for the HSE said: “The HSE can confirm that NAS staff do not and have never brought emergency ambulances home.

“In relation to the use of vehicles available to NAS Managers for business purposes during working hours, the HSE must comply with Revenue Commissioner Regulations in relation to what in this case is the potential personal use of publicly owned emergency vehicles. All HSE employees are covered by these rules.

“NAS managers are not on call outside of their core working hours, however, a small number of clinically qualified managers across the country have consistently made themselves available to respond on a goodwill basis outside of working hours. The HSE is engaging with the relevant trade unions to put in place measures to allow this to continue.

“Response times carried out and reported on by the NAS through HSE Service Plan performance targets relate to emergency ambulances or vehicles capable of transporting patients only. They are unaffected by the use of manager operated vehicles.

“As a public body, the HSE cannot support the use of publicly owned emergency vehicles for purposes that the Revenue Commissioner considers potential personal use or benefit.”