Recruitment of Specialist Paramedics for Tipperary given green light following new investment
Tipperary North TD Michael Lowry welcomed the investment
The National Ambulance Service has received approval to proceed with recruiting additional staff across several service areas following the Government’s announcement of €8m in 2025 (part year) rising to €16m in 2026 for new service developments in NAS.
A key factor included in this investment is that recruitment has commenced to select candidates to commence an MS in Specialist Paramedic Practice (Advanced) with a view to future deployment to as many as twenty locations, including Thurles, Roscrea, Tipperary Town and Cashel.
“This investment will be transformational for the people living in these areas,” said Tipperary North TD Michael Lowry.
“Reports of people waiting for an excessive duration of time for an ambulance are not acceptable. If a person calls an ambulance it is because medical attention is required urgently and, in the majority of cases, the patient requires a speedy transfer to hospital,” he sais.
Each Emergency Ambulance requires 12 registered healthcare professionals to operate on a 24/7 basis with 89 new Student Paramedics commencing in January 2025 while Qualified Paramedic recruitment commenced in April 2025.
NAS also hosts the National Aeromedical Coordination Centre and plans and manages the movement of all aeromedical missions within and from Ireland, including Priority 1 missions for vulnerable children requiring specialist transplant surgery.
The focus of this investment will include support for 24 additional Emergency Medical Technicians to provide 4 additional Intermediate Care Vehicles in the South West and Mid-West, 10 additional Education staff to facilitate the establishment of a new Tertiary level Educational Campus in Cork, increasing overall capacity to run multiple programmes including an MS in Specialist Paramedic Practice (Advanced) in January 2026.
In addition to the welcome increase in staffing, NAS has also received approval for €17.8m in fleet and equipment, including 61 new patient-carrying vehicles to ensure staff continue to have the best possible fleet and equipment available to them nationwide, and €1.5m in minor capital to enable essential works to be carried out on Ambulance Stations across the country.
This news comes after the issue of inadequate ambulance services in Tipperary was raised in a meeting of the Thurles Municipal District of the Tipperary County Council earlier this year by Cllrs Micheál Lowry and Shane Lee.
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.”