‘We are treating the island communities as second class citizens’

Residents of Tory Island in need of urgent care have been transported in the back of a work van as there is no ambulance on the island.

Sick and vulnerable patients on the islands such as Tory do not have access to the necessary emergency services. Tory Island currently has a full-time nurse but does not have a full-time GP or fire service. 

“We are treating the island community right across the 26 counties as second class citizens,” Independent Councillor Micheál MacGiolla Easbuig said. “There is an injustice here, right across the whole island communities. 

“We would not accept that a work van would transport very sick people to receive medical care so why are the island communities expected to accept this.

“This happens often, elderly people being transported in the back of a van, I was out myself the day someone was due to come in I actually saw the van parked there. Now I would like to extend thanks to those people who do this out of the goodness of their heart. But it is not acceptable that this is what the people have to resort to.” 

The Independent Councillor who is also part of the Coiste na nÓileain Islands Committee believes that escalating the matter is the only way for a resolution, believing that people on the islands are entitled to equal care. 

Just two islands in Ireland have access to an ambulance - Arranmore in Donegal and Oranmore in Galway. Arranmore was only recently provided with an ambulance after a long campaign to install the service in the area.

“So in light of this, what I am working on with the HSE is to find a solution,” he continued. “I had a meeting with the HSE and I have requested a question for the Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly regarding not just Oileán Toraigh but in terms of the other islands why is it that we do not have adequate ambulance services.

“The very fact that across the 26 counties we only have two ambulance services for the islanders, fair play to all of the islanders for their work that they done but we have many many more islands and it is not acceptable in any way shape or form to treat our island community like second class.”