Question from Deputy Claire Kerrane - PQ 18766-26

To ask the Minister for Health if she is aware that patient transport and care from the intermediate care operatives in the National Ambulance Service has been handed over to the private sector with no engagement with intermediate care operatives; if this decision will be reversed ( who had been doing the job and have now been moved to frontline work, which they were not consulted on and nor are they paid for, why this decision was made, if the NAS have looked at cost of this, ); and if she will make a statement on the matter.