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Irish Examiner
22-05-2025
- Health
- Irish Examiner
Company outlines how reduction of paramedics in air ambulance service poses safety risks
The company which provides a life-saving air ambulance service for the State raised serious concerns about flight safety risks after the HSE's National Ambulance Service (NAS) introduced changes to the medical crewing model on the aircraft. The crew changes included rostering just one paramedic to work some of the shifts on the aircraft, which operates from a base near Millstreet, in Cork, to covering the south west and beyond. In an explosive email, a senior official in Gulf Med Aviation Services (GMAS), which provides the aircraft and pilots for the service under contract to the NAS, said since the changes: he had seen a marked deterioration in how the medical staff on board the helicopter perform their aviation tasks while tasked to work shifts on the helicopter; he had seen "workflow and cognitive errors" in the aviation-focused tasks the medical crew need to perform safely as part of the helicopter crew; and how the 'low levels of motivation, concentration, and attention to the task' that appear to have resulted from the recent medical crew changes is 'evident and impactful'. Malta-based GMAS went so far as to formally ask NAS officials for 'an intervention at the earliest opportunity' to address the issues, which were flagged in February. The HSE has insisted, however, that the helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) is safe and working effectively, that the crewing model is safe for both patients and crew, and that there are no outstanding matters of concern in relation to the contract. The revelation comes just weeks after the Irish Examiner reported how the HEMS covering the south was at risk of being grounded in a row over NAS moves to cut the number of paramedics rostered to work on the aircraft from two to just one. Farm safety minister Michael Healy-Rae described any such move as 'reckless'. The crewing changes were being advanced despite internal reports warning HSE and NAS management that a solo paramedic crewing model poses a risk to patients, to the paramedics and pilots, and poses a flight safety risk. The Irish Examiner reported last March how one internal report warned that if the NAS couldn't provide two paramedics for each of the HEMS aircraft, then the service should be stood down on those days. The HEMS is currently operating several shifts with just one medical crew member on board. The National Ambulance Service provides two dedicated HEMS responses in Ireland - one based in Cork, operated by GMAS, and the other in Athlone operated by the Air Corps - with medical staff on both aircraft supplied by the NAS. File picture: Dan Linehan A senior manager also warned that a single patient safety incident such as a drug error, an in-flight patient emergency, or in the worst-case scenario, a crash, would bring the crewing issue 'sharply into focus'. Concerns were also expressed in March that the NAS was recruiting emergency medical technicians (EMTs) to replace the second paramedic on the aircraft. Qualifying as an EMT takes just five weeks. EMTs cannot perform any of the major 'interventional skills' required to help critically ill patients, including intubation – the placing of a tube in a patient's airway – and the intravenous administration of powerful painkillers, which are often required of patients who need an air ambulance. The NAS provides two dedicated HEMS responses in Ireland - one based in Cork, operated by GMAS, and the other in Athlone operated by the Air Corps - with medical staff on both aircraft supplied by the NAS. In 2022, GMAS won the competitive tender for the delivery of the Cork-based service, taking over from the previous charity provider in February 2023. It is understood the company won the tender again earlier this year. GMAS has an aviation safety management system (SMS) which underwrites the approval of its HEMS service here by its regulator, TM-CAD, the civil aviation directorate in Malta. The National Ambulance Service said it takes concerns raised around the safety of its services very seriously. File picture: Larry Cummins But earlier this year, concerns were emerging from within the service about changes the NAS was making to the medical crewing model on board the aircraft, which included reducing the number of paramedics rostered to work the aircraft from two to just one on certain shifts. In his letter to NAS officials in February, the GMAS official said the HEMS base in Cork had been operating for about two months with a limited medical team on the helicopter. 'It is important that as the operator of the service, we ensure our SMS processes are robust and commensurate with the acceptable risks that prevail during intensive HEMs operations,' he wrote. 'As we understand it, the advanced paramedics are generally spending seven shifts on the helicopter operation within a five-week period. The complex mix of other duties away from the HEMS operation further reduces their capacity to cope. 'As a result, Gulf Med is experiencing workflow and cognitive errors in the aviation centric tasks required of the paramedics that are critical for them to safely interface with the aviation side of the operation. In addition, the low levels of motivation, concentration, and attention to the task that appear to have resulted from the recent changes is evident and impactful.' The company said safety is the number one consideration for all aviation operations and the regulations demand that due attention is given to the management of changes. 'In this case, the HEMs Rathcoole unit has seen three new HEMs paramedics very recently trained and allocated to the helicopter,' the GMAS official said. 'These individuals were trained and certified in a multi-practitioner role (two medical crew on board) and had barely consolidated before being rostered in the single practitioner role on the helicopter. The risks involved in such a change are self-evident. 'For example, a paramedic returning from a significant period away from the unit is often required to mount a HEMS mission in the first few minutes of arriving at the base. This is not a safe practice.' It said like most safety critical activities, all that has to happen for a serious incident or an accident to occur, is for the good people involved to do nothing. The Gulf Med official said he felt they were at the point where something needs to be done to improve: the recent experience of all staff on board the helicopter to match the risks involved in the operation; the mental capacity of junior members of the team to cope with the HEMs role; and a reduction in the disruption and changes that are clearly affecting the motivation, concentration and attention to detail that is necessary to remain safe. GMAS did not respond to requests to comment. Any issues relating to a contract like this, and which are being raised for resolution, must be raised by the relevant company through a formal contract management framework which has been established through the relevant public procurement process. In a response to queries from the Irish Examiner, the NAS said it takes concerns raised around the safety of its services very seriously. 'Any concerns or issues raised in relation to the HEMS are escalated through our agreed contract management process and dealt with expeditiously,' it said in a statement. 'Currently the HSE and Gulf Med Aviation Services are satisfied that services are safe and working effectively. 'The crewing model for the HSE's HEMS is safe for patients and staff. Since its inception in June 2012, the HSE HEMS has operated a successful crewing model consisting of one specialist paramedic and one EMT. 'In September 2024, the HSE commenced a feasibility study to examine the need for physician-delivered HEMS in Ireland. The preliminary results of the trial have not supported any change to the HEMS crewing model, hence the trial period has been extended into 2025.' The HSE said both of its HEMS continue to operate normally, with further support, if required, provided through the Irish Coast Guard's search and rescue aviation service.
Irish Examiner
09-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Examiner
‘The moment we grasped East Cork really is one of the best places to live'
James Colbert, auctioneer, reflects on some of the reasons why East Cork's popular is steadily rising In 2006, my now wife and I bought a house in Whitegate, East Cork. Having spent majority of my life in Midleton which was growing rapidly, it was once stated that I would get a nose bleed if I went over the Cork Road Bridge so a move to the 'country' was a bit strange but it was 2006, things were a plenty and this would only be for a year max before we flipped it and moved on. A stepping stone. Enter recession. Lower Aghada. Pictures: Dan Linehan 14 years later and it's 2020, we have grown to love the area and can see our future here. The drive from Midleton is about 15 minutes door to door for me as I have an office on Main Street, Midleton. My wife, not so much as her office is on The South Mall, Cork City — or Town as she calls it, which always confuses the kids, you can take the woman out of the city! Her drive is a little longer and at the start, when the recession hit and we were not moving anywhere, I always feared for my safety when she would negotiate the traffic each evening and morning. Back in those days there was no easy access via slipway off the Lakeview Rounabaout or the fancy new roadway into the tunnel, was there even a tunnel back then? I googled it, there was, opened in 1999. Anyway, getting back to my safety, on that journey home from 'town' my wife would grip the steering wheel tight and think of ways to torture me. She would remember our wedding and smile as she passed Little Island bristling with stores like Harvey Norman, JYSK, The Range, Costa plus many more. She would smile and recall that I'm good for lifting things when she reached Mideton which is abundant with shops like Hurleys SuperValu, Lidle, Aldi (I still cant tell the difference), four-screen cinema, Tesco and here's the jewel in the crown, the only McDonalds between Douglas and Dungarvan! She would finally loosen the grip on the wheel entering Farsid/Rostellan as the water views start on your right-hand side. The manicured entrance to the quiet village, which the locals obsess over and the heron sits upon the fiesta waiting for the owner to return from work with a snack. The evening sun glistens across the harbour and you can barely make out the cathedral in Cobh. From here until Whitegate it is just head-turning beauty and you can't help but relax. I am safe for another day, plus we have bought a site in the area and we are going to build our dream home, what can possibly go wrong? Enter Covid. Lower Aghada in East Cork, where well developed amenities and greenways make the area very popular with local residents. I'm sure when the kids look back at the pandemic in years to come, they will ask why we complained about staying at home, watching Netflix and doing online quizzes but they were unsettling times riddled in anxiety of the unknown not to mention the countless deaths. The dream build fizzled away when we finally returned to normal as prices spiked and a renewed cost came back a whopping 110% above what was previously quoted. It did, however, make us all sit up and realise what we had on our doorstep and no place stood prouder than East Cork. As my great late father once said 'If you can't be with the one you love, then love the one you are with' — and that is exactly what we did. Walking within our 5-mile radius each day along the People's Walk which stretches from Whitegate with its well-equipped Euospar, past the tennis courts to L.A. (Lower Aghada) which has or favourite restaurant Rosies, right down to Rostellan Woods which is home to mountain bike trails and Aghada GAA pitch. All the while admiring the picturesque scenery over the lapping water and that's just the walks! We also had Whitebay Beach, Corkbeg Pitch & Putt and the popular dipping point Guileen, mirroring an old English seaside village with its thatched roofs. It was a tough time that was made all the better by living in East Cork. Of course, there are great spots all over this island and areas that are beautiful to 'visit', but the majority of us 'live' in areas, so as an auctioneer you can't help to look at what the amenities available are. East Cork was always the bridesmaid when it came to the marriage of luxury home buying. The lure of West Cork or Town (she got me) would usually prevail but things they are finally changing. Capri Lodge, which we closed in January just gone, went for €1,100,000; it was a record for the town of Midleton and that has opened up the floodgates with a number of homes since selling for close to the million mark. However, it's not just about price and East Cork never tried to compete with The West. We are who we are and the area has proven time and again that it is comfortable in its own skin. We liked that we had an area not commonly mentioned every week in the papers, it kept the townies and the Yanks at bay, but the secret is now out. Waves break on the beach at the front strand beach. Former railway station and the car parking area at the newly opened Youghal to Midleton Greenway at the front strand beach at Youghal, Co Cork. Picture Larry Cummins The recent greenway, which travels from Midleton past Mogeely, Killeagh and into Youghal, is as good as any. The train network operates from Cork and services Little Island, Glounthaune, Cobh and Midleton. Youghal and Cobh are as pretty a seaside town as you will get and while Youghal prices have not YET grown, Cobh is becoming one of the more popular destinations in Cork, especially for Americans. It has over 112 cruise liners a year and whereas before the passengers would be whisked off to tours of the City, they now favour to stay put and take in all the town has to offer like the The Cathedral, Titanic Museum and Spike Island Tour which was voted one of the best attractions in Europe recently. When searching for a home you have to take a lot into account. What are the local job opportunities? Sporting facilities? Places to eat? Road access and networks? East Cork is thriving on all accounts. The new Waterock development will see almost 2,500 new homes built with a new town. Carrigtwohill remains one of the best IDA sites in the country with tenants the likes of Stryker, Gilead, Abbvie and Merck. The world famous Ballymaloe House is nestled on the road to Ballycotton ideal for the foodies. Midleton's revamped Distillery is awash with visitors, the luxurious restaurant Cush opens next week, Fota Wildlife park is accessible via train and it's sunnier in East Cork! Not sure about the validity of that last one, but it certainly feels it. House purchase demands have changed over the past number of years and instead of the south-facing garden and unobstructed views, people now look for more substance when buying a home. They want communities, open spaces for their kids to play, neighbours and most importantly a healthy lifestyle. Of course, the house still matters and even better if it doesn't need work, seeing as costs are still rising but when it comes to healthy living, there is no better place than the area we love and now call home. Enter East Cork.
Irish Examiner
01-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Examiner
Cynthia Ní Mhurchú: 'Restricting Airbnbs will ruin local economies like the Dingle peninsula'
Philip Fitzgibbon runs a surf school and waterpark on the north shore of the Dingle Peninsula, right on the edge of my constituency. He employs local people. His sister runs a dive centre just three miles up the road, and his other sister operates a laundrette in nearby Castlegregory village. That laundrette washes many of the sheets for the local Airbnbs that cater for the thousands of tourists that come to visit this beautiful part of the world every year. This incredible stretch of sandy beach-lined coast is home to thousands of people who depend on tourism to make their day-to-day living. From horse-riding schools to surfing, to the laundrettes that wash the sheets, to the bars and restaurants that feed people, to the buses and taxis that ferry them around and the boat drivers that show them the beauty of our oceans, to the local shops that sell them ice creams. Kerry County Council has been issuing 'cease and desist' letters to Airbnb hosts on the peninsula for the past year, but at the same time, it has an abysmal record when it comes to granting planning permission for tourist specific accommodation on Dingle's north shore. There are no hotels on this stretch of coastline, from Tralee town to Cloghane village, and only a handful of guesthouses. Kerry County Council has been issuing "cease and desist" letters to Airbnb hosts on the peninsula for the past year, but at the same time, it has an abysmal record when it comes to granting planning permission for tourist specific accommodation on Dingle's north shore. In 2001, Kerry County Council refused planning to the Shore Acre Caravan Park to expand the park by 30 units. In 2004, it refused permission to build a 41-bed hotel in Camp. Just 12 months later, Kerry County Council refused planning for 10 holiday homes in Garrahies, Camp. In early 2020, Kerry County Council refused a tourist glamping park in Castlegregory village, and also issued a refusal for tourism accommodation at Sandy Feet farm just outside Camp village on the peninsula. Kerry County Council may argue it is supportive of the tourism industry in Kerry but it has not facilitated the level of accommodation that is needed to cope with demand. That demand is now being met with private short-term lets. Picture: Dan Linehan Kerry County Council may argue it is supportive of the tourism industry in Kerry but it has not facilitated the level of accommodation that is needed to cope with demand. That demand is now being met with private short-term lets. These are the very same short-term lets a proposed Government bill will shut down, precipitating an immediate crisis on this little peninsula and countless others like it. Shops will close, bars will have fewer customers, boat tour operators will cease, and people will lose their jobs in very rural parts of Ireland that depend on tourism. In the rush to solve the housing crisis, we seem to be willing to accept a tourism crisis as collateral damage. This is against a backdrop where CSO figures are already tracking a worrying decline in tourism numbers — dropping 15% drop in March 2025 alone. A recent ESRI report cast doubt on the initial proclamations of former tourism minister Catherine Martin when she announced crippling Airbnbs would bring up to 12,000 homes back into the long-term rental market. She made those claims without any quantitative evidence. With my background as a barrister, you will forgive me for demanding an evidence-based approach to any legislation — in particular legislation that will impact on the livelihood of a large swathe of the population in rural Ireland. The ESRI has said the impact of short-term lets like Airbnb on the rental sector has been exaggerated, yet still we persist. The issue with a proposed register is not the register itself. The issue is whether hosts of short-term lets will have to get planning permission, a process whereby engineers, architects and lots of paperwork quickly clocks up a hefty €5,000 bill, with no guarantees planning permission will be the end result. Perhaps instead we should put more focus on the red tape we have allowed to flourish in the long-term rental market. The Residential Tenancies Board was designed to protect renters but has succeeded in adding layers upon layers of red tape, which make small landlords reconsider their options. Cynthia Ní Mhurchú: 'I am not saying conclusively that short-term lets are not an issue impacting on the rental stock, in particular in our cities. What I am saying is that we need a body of empirical evidence and targeted policy approaches that doesn't adopt the 'hammer to crack a nut' approach to legislation. If a rogue tenant stops paying their rent, it can take over a year to work through the official channels to get them out. Said rouge tenant does not have to abide by any RTB ruling and landlords must take them to court to enforce the ruling, raising the question: why not go straight to court? Landlord has become a dirty word in Ireland, but these are often "mom and pop" landlords who have worked hard to buy a second property to cushion their retirement. Some politicians rush to disown them, not embrace them as the hard-working providers of housing in the market. Let's be clear. I am not saying conclusively that short-term lets are not an issue impacting on the rental stock, in particular in our cities. What I am saying is that we need a body of empirical evidence and targeted policy approaches that doesn't adopt the 'hammer to crack a nut' approach to legislation. In New York, rent prices remain high and housing availability low, despite city authorities implementing one of the strictest short-term letting regulations in the world in 2023 (Local Law 18). Portugal is now in the process of repealing overly restrictive short-term let measures introduced less than one year ago because they are not working as expected. As a counterpoint, the city of Porto has taken a highly data-driven and sensible approach: limiting new short-term rentals in busy areas but also viewing them as a basis for urban regeneration in neglected quarters of the city. Restricting short-term lets in a blanket fashion may do little more than destroy a tourism product that has taken decades to build. Picture: Dan Linehan In Scotland, the government there was forced to water down its crackdown on holiday lets after being accused of driving away tourists. It ended up with just 15% of short-term lets registered, while the other 85% disappeared from the system entirely. The housing crisis is complex but I feel we are best-placed focusing our energy on removing the barriers to building more homes, be it planning bureaucracy, water, sewage and electricity connection issues, and vacancy rates. Restricting short-term lets in a blanket fashion may do little more than destroy a tourism product that has taken decades to build. Our policy position should not be to lurch from one crisis to another but rather look to implement measures based on real evidence, and a data-driven approach. Cynthia Ní Mhurchú is a Fianna Fáil MEP for Ireland South Read More Visit Ireland: Irish tourist hotspots size up their prospects for the summer of 2025
Irish Examiner
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Irish Examiner
Irish Examiner view: Blackout should remind us to prepare
The power outage in Spain, Portugal, and some parts of France earlier this week was a frightening event in and of itself, but it should also serve as a timely call for Ireland. The scale of the outage was unprecedented. On Monday, Spain's power grid lost 15GW, or the equivalent of 60% of its national demand, in just five seconds. The suddenness and scale have led inevitably to speculation about the cause, with Spanish government officials specifically refuting suggestions of a cyber-attack — though their cause was not initially aided by the contradictory explanations on offer, with both atmospheric issues and heat in the country's interior being blamed. By yesterday morning, 99% of power was restored, but not before we saw some unsettling images of the reality on the ground. Dan Linehan of the Irish Examiner sent back striking footage of darkened cafes and lengthy queues outside supermarkets, while we also saw passengers stranded in the middle of nowhere when trains broke down. There are positives which can be mined from the experience. Spain has been swift to thank the authorities in Morocco and France for supplying energy during the outage — a timely reminder of the importance of strong international co-operation at a time when that concept is under threat from the US and others. It is also a salutary lesson for Ireland, one to take on board before we experience any power outages of a similar scale. Spanish citizens quickly shared the lessons they learned from the outage, for instance. Without power there are no contactless payments, for instance, so cash is essential. The lack of wifi makes it impossible to stay abreast of developments: A battery-powered radio is worth having. Working torches are also necessary, as is an ample supply of batteries for all of those devices. The irony, of course, is that such lessons would not have been necessary in the Ireland of the 70s, when power cuts were relatively frequent. The key lesson then remains relevant now: Be prepared. Families right to feel aggrieved Belfast rap group Kneecap issued a statement yesterday in which they stressed that they do not support Hamas or Hezbollah. The statement was in response to a controversy which erupted when concert footage surfaced of the rappers chanting their support for Hamas and Hezbollah at a concert. They were also shown calling on a concert audience to kill their MPs, hence the band's apology in yesterday's statement to the families of Jo Cox and David Amess, MPs killed in in 2016 and 2021 respectively. Kneecap claim that their comments were taken out of context but it is difficult to argue against the points made by the Amess and Cox families, that the rappers should be aware of the responsibility that comes with their profile when making such statements. Those statements were insupportable, and the band's apology to those families reflects that. The band may also claim they are being criticised in order to 'derail the real conversation' about the thousands of Palestinians being killed in Gaza, but they are wrong here also. The Palestinian people have been slaughtered in their thousands and no right-thinking person could be anything but supportive of them and repelled by the actions of the Israeli Defence Forces in Gaza. However, folding that support into cheering for Hamas and Hezbollah is also wrong. These are terrorist organisations. When Taoiseach Micheál Martin called on Kneecap to clarify their position, he pointed out correctly that 'Hezbollah are responsible, in my view, for the murder of Seán Rooney ' — the Irish soldier killed in an ambush in Lebanon three years ago. Kneecap are fond of using the Tricolour at their concerts and with their merchandise. That is the flag Pt Rooney served. It goes without saying that being criticised by the middle-aged and elderly is unlikely to dent Kneecap's popularity. If anything, it is likely to boost their standing among fans; the enmity of the establishment has been a godsend to any number of rebellious, or pseudo-rebellious, musicians. However, the adrenaline generated in a packed venue is no excuse for the insults to the Amess, Cox, and Rooney families. Earned respect This week, we learned which organisations in Ireland are trusted most, with the publication of the annual Ireland Reputation Index. For the third year in a row, credit unions topped the index, with An Post coming in second, and chemist chain Boots in third. The index is based on a poll of 5,000 members of the public which measures the level of trust, respect, admiration, and esteem the public has for 100 of the largest and most important organisations in Ireland. Readers will have their own views on the index. Six of the top 10 organisations are Irish, for instance — does that mean we are predisposed to trusting indigenous companies? It is interesting to consider that three of the other top 10 organisations — Toyota, Boots, and Lidl — have a long-standing presence in Ireland which has clearly helped them to build strong relationships with consumers. Unsurprisingly, given the toxic reputation of so many social media firms and online platforms, Meta was ranked 100th, closely followed by X which was ranked 99th. Those organisations' outsized influence on public opinion is not blunted by this lack of trust, apparently, but it is good to see recognition for responsible organisations which make a priority of serving the public.
