A TD for Cork North Central says the response time for ambulance care in Cork and Kerry has risen by over 70% since 2019.
Deputy Thomas Gould raised the issue in the Dáil yesterday during a private members debate on the "Future of Regional Pre-Hospital Emergency Care".
He told the Dáil that 72% of life-threatening incidents are not being responded to within the target time of 19 minutes.
He blamed the pressure that paramedics in Cork are under - on "continued failings" to resource the National Ambulance Service, and warned that this is putting huge pressure on those working in the service including paramedics.
Speaking in the Dáil Chamber, Deputy Gould that the A & E crisis means ambulances are being forced to queue for long periods - and unable to get back out in the community:
"I was in Cork City with my family and there was a young woman, who was had collapsed. And when I ran 999, I was told it would be over 40 minutes. The Mercy Hospital was four minutes away, and the CUH was 10 minutes away. But what happened was, all the ambulances were queued up, unable to offload patients because the crisis we have in A&E. So we had to put that young lady into a car to get her to the Mercy Hospital because the ambulance service would have been over 40 minutes"
