Matt Reid

As that man previously spoke, he worked in the ambulance service for years, he worked in the Defence Forces, and as I said, that's just my opinion.

I'm not saying I'm 100% right.

That's what I'm able to take from it.

I think there's an essential service.

There are a lot of people now today...

mightn't get the proper emergency care that they need because of that strike.

And they have to take that on board.

As he said, they don't want to be going into the coroner's court and explaining...

the situation where one ambulance and there was five different calls for emergencies and only one ambulance or two sandwiches were dispatched and other people got delayed.

That's all I'm saying.

I'm not saying I have the answers for the mechanisms that should be put in place between government and the unions and so forth.

But when they had an agreement that was nailed out with their union, and rightly so, and they accepted it and recommended it to their workers, then all of a sudden you have this strike, you know?

No, I don't really support them.

I can tell you that three times over a period of years, we've had to call for an ambulance for emergencies.

And we're told that there was no ambulance available.

Now, these were emergencies.

I, on

three occasions had to drive my family members to the local hospital, which is 10 minutes from us, on the north side of Dublin.

And the third time there was no ambulance available, but my daughter, she was bleeding profusely, she was pregnant, and I drove her myself again, because there was no ambulance available, to bring her into the maternity ward.

And I was told by the midwife that 10 minutes later, my grandson would have died.