Emergency response - Ring-fence key resources

IT would be hard to exaggerate the importance of the emergency services that save lives virtually every day up and down the country.

The people who operate such vital facilities as the ambulance service, fire brigades and other crucial operations play an invaluable role.

That lends weight to yesterday’s report from HIQA calling on Health Minister Mary Harney to introduce measures to further cut the response time in life-threatening emergencies to within eight minutes.