Air ambulance service waiting for lift-off

The gleaming helicopter is sitting in the hangar. It can be airborne within two and a half minutes. Paramedics have undergone training to work with the pilot during flight operations but the crew helmets are still wrapped in plastic on a shelf in the control room of the new €400,000 airbase.

Phones and computers have been installed, aeronautical maps are on the walls, and volunteer firefighters have been trained to operate a second-hand fire tender parked on the newly laid apron.