Ambulances took more than an hour to respond to almost 3,500 calls classified as high priority last year.
In one case, a delay of nearly seven hours was recorded, while in five other callouts, the response time logged exceeded four hours, reports Breaking News.
The National Ambulance Service said wait times exceeded one hour for 13 emergency calls classified at their highest acuity level of PURPLE.
In a further 3,481 cases categorised as RED, a person was left waiting at least 60 minutes for emergency services to arrive, reports Breaking News.
The NAS said the figures needed to be treated with caution as the status of a call could change mid-incident.
An information note said: “Certain calls represented within this report may have been initially assessed as a lower acuity but were subsequently reclassified to a Category 1, as additional information became available, or the patient’s condition evolved,” reports Breaking News.
It said there would have been many cases where an emergency was initially considered lower priority and later upgraded.
“The associated response interval may not accurately represent a response to a high-priority emergency from the outset, and should be interpreted with due caution,” the note said, reports Breaking News.
Figures released under FOI show a wait of six hours and 55 minutes in one case classified as RED, the second highest priority category.
There were five cases of between four and five hours, 22 of between three and four hours, and 136 of between two and three hours, reports Breaking News.
Overall, the NAS sets a target of responding to 45% of RED and 75% of PURPLE calls within 19 minutes of receiving them.
Nationwide, the target for highest-acuity PURPLE calls was achieved in around 71% of cases in 2025, reports Breaking News.
However, in December of last year that rate dropped to 62.5%, according to figures released under FOI.
For high-acuity RED calls, around 44% of callouts were responded to within 19 minutes, a figure that also fell in December to 37.4%, reports Breaking News.
Asked about the records, the NAS said it continued to face “sustained and growing demand.”
During 2025 it responded to around 450,000 emergency calls, an increase of 5% on the previous year, reports Breaking News.
A statement said: “This reflects wider pressures across the health system, including an ageing population and increasing chronic illness.”
The NAS said significant investment had been made to meet demand, with increases in budget and staffing as well as fleet replacement and expansion, reports Breaking News.
The statement added: “Response time targets in Ireland are set at a national level and prioritise the most clinically urgent cases.
“For example, the target is to reach 75% of the most life-threatening (cardiac or respiratory arrest) calls within 18 minutes and 59 seconds, reports Breaking News.
“There are no maximum response time targets beyond these thresholds, and longer response times, including those exceeding one hour, must be considered in the context of clinical prioritisation and demand at that time,” reports Breaking News.
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