Extra ambulance resources needed in Inishowen

Speaking at Tuesday’s meeting of the Inishowen Municipal District, councillor Martin McDermott said he welcomed that discussions were underway to establish an ambulance base in Buncrana, but “there can’t be a situation where the ambulance is being moved around to cover areas not within the peninsula”.

Colr McDermott said he was concerned that north Inishowen could be left isolated if the National Ambulance Service decided to move the Carndonagh based ambulance to different parts of the peninsula.

“I’m sure the members wouldn’t want to see that happening. It would be difficult to get an ambulance to north Inishowen.

“The NAS are looking at this on a countywide basis, they are just interested in moving the ambulances around to have a bigger geographical spread. We have to be very careful how this is handled,” he said.

Colr Nicholas Crossan said north Inishowen would suffer if the ambulance was ever moved out of Carndonagh.

Colr McDermott added: “The NAS has taken on 13 extra staff, but this hasn’t increased the level of service here whatsoever, there is no extra cover.

“If we don’t deal with this now, our ambulance will be used as back up to the bigger towns. We must make sure if they push forward with plans we need additional resources.”