I move amendment No. 1:—
In page 3, to add to Section 6 the following new sub-section:—
(2) Every direction under this section shall be by Order and the Order shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made and, if a resolution annulling the Order is passed by either such House within the next subsequent 21 days on which that House has sat after the Order has been laid before it, the Order shall be annulled accordingly but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under the Order.
At the Committee Stage, Deputy M. E. Dockrell moved an amendment to delete paragraph (b) of sub-section (5) (2). His reasons for moving the amendment may, I think, be summarised by saying that if the Irish Red Cross Society is permitted to operate an ambulance service for hire as Section 5 (2) (b) of the Bill would allow, it would very adversely affect, if not indeed ruin, a private ambulance company which has given an ample and satisfactory 24-hour service for over 20 years. He considered that it would be very wrong to allow a State-subsidised body to interfere with a private enterprise in that way. The amendment was withdrawn on my undertaking to re-examine the matter with a view to seeing whether I would be able to ensure that the Irish Red Cross Society will not enter into unfair competition with private enterprise.
I was very impressed with the case made by Deputy Dockrell. I am grateful to him for raising the matter in the specific way in which he did and I sympathise very much with the views which he expressed on behalf of the private ambulance company in question. At the same time I would like to re-state the position from the point of view of the Irish Red Cross Society. On the Second Stage, I dealt fully with the reasons why it was proposed to allow the society to operate an ambulance service and to make charges for such service. As I mentioned at the Committee Stage, the only reason why the society is unable to operate such a service at present is because of a High Court interpretation of a law of the Oireachtas. Any other society such as the St. John Ambulance Brigade or the Knights of Malta is quite free to run such a service, and it can be argued that it is unjust to maintain such a discrimination against the Irish Red Cross Society only.
In favour of permitting the society to operate such a service I would also like to say that it is not, and indeed it never has been, the aim of the Irish Red Cross Society to run ambulances on a profit-making basis. This was exemplified when in the course of the High Court proceedings in 1945, it was pointed out that in the period of about four years ended on the 30th April, 1945, the society received £5,500 for hiring charges but expended £8,100 in respect of the running, maintenance, etc., of the ambulances.
Manned as it is by purely voluntary workers the society's ambulance service could not be anything in the nature of a full-time service. It has only a total of 18 ambulances, four of which are located in Dublin. The society considers that it cannot, therefore, ever become a serious threat to any commercial firm operating a full-time service.
I have now fully reconsidered this whole question. Indeed, I may say that I considered it to be of such importance that I submitted it to the Government for their decision. It has been decided to retain Section 5 of the Bill as it stands at present but to issue directions under Section 6 to prevent the society entering into competition with private enterprise. It is intended that those directions will be on the following lines:—
(1) The society shall not ply for hire of its ambulances. It shall not by advertisement, circular, or in any other way offer the services of its ambulances on hire. Ambulances will be used on hire only on request and then subject to the following conditions:—
Generally speaking those responsible for authorising the use of the society's ambulances will permit an ambulance to be used for hire only where—
(a) they are satisfied that efforts have been made on the patient's behalf to obtain a commercial ambulance but have been unsuccessful, or
(b) the patient's medical adviser certifies that the patient's condition is so dangerous that he cannot wait until a commercial ambulance arrives.
(2) A Red Cross ambulance may, however, without question be sent, on request, to convey victims of accidents to hospital.
(3) If any charge is made for the use of an ambulance in the circumstances already mentioned, it shall not be lower than the comparable rate for commercial ambulances.
(4) Where the attendance of the society's ambulances is requested by the promoters of sports fixtures, race meetings, etc., to stand by in case of accident they may be permitted to do so and any gift or donation proffered by the promoters of such events in consideration of such attendance may be accepted by the society.
(5) Nothing in these directions shall be construed as preventing the society from using its ambulances free of charge where it considers that the humanitarian principles which govern all of its activities demand such action.
As an added safeguard so far as this House is concerned it is proposed that any directions under Section 6 will be by way of an Order which must be laid before each House of the Oireachtas and be capable of annulment by resolution within 21 days. The amendment which I have now moved provides accordingly.
