This article is from page 6 of the 2005-11-01 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 6 JPG
SCARIFF people campaigning for 24-hour am- bulance cover for their area are bitterly disap- pointed that Health Minister, Mary Harney, has refused to meet them.
The group had planned to send a deputation to present the Tanaiste with a petition containing thousands of signatures, calling for 24-hour am- bulance cover for Scariff and surrounding areas.
But when asked in the Dail whether she would meet members of the newly-formed group, Min- ister Harney said that in her view, “any request for a meeting in relation to this matter would be appropriately addressed to the Executive.”
Group members have vowed not to give up, and are now planning the next move in their campaign to provide cover between 7pm and midnight, the time when the ambulance is without a crew.
‘We are very disappointed but we are not going to stop now,” said Cora Long, one of the founder members of the group.
“At the first meeting we had, it was said that everyone deserves the same quality of health care, whether they live in a city or in a rural area and that is true. We had bargained on being able to put our case to the Minister, but if she won’t meet us we will just find another way to progress,” said Ms Long.
The group is now calling another meeting for this Thursday to decide what the next move should be.
“We will open it up for ideas and we will have to put our thinking caps on but we won’t go away. Accidents happen between 7pm and midnight, and that is the reality,’ said Ms Long.
The group was formed after locals experienced difficulties in getting an ambulance to come to a
fatal house fire in June while last month, a seri- ously injured motorcyclist lay in pain for almost an hour waiting for an ambulance after a crash. Meanwhile, Fine Gael TD, Pat Breen, has called for the Minister “to stop ducking her re-
sponsibilities. Increasingly, the Minister is pass- ing the buck to the Health Service Executive when questioned on health issues. Every time a parliamentary question is submitted, she replies that the responsibility lies with the HSE.”