The Minister for Public Expenditure Brendan Howlin has revealed that there were fewer ambulances based in Louth than expected last night.
The news comes after a Dundalk man was forced to wait over 40 minutes for an ambulance which resulted in him bleeding to death at his home. Mr Howlin claims there are normally 10 ambulances working in the Dundalk area on a nightly basis, but there were only eight operating in the region recently.
The shortage and the delay of ambulances in Louth has caused uproar amongst many who feel that Dualtagh Donnelly’s aged 25 life could have been saved if the full compliment of emergency vehicles were running. However Minister Howlin blamed the reduction on “short-notice absences”:
Mr Howlin said: “The reduction in capacity was due to short-notice absences on the night which I understand is not an exceptional circumstance.”
He added: “These are the matters that we have to look into to ensure that the real concerns of the Donnelly family are firmly investigated and ventilated.”