State To Fully Fund Air Ambulance Service in South-West

12th February 2023

Maltese company Gulf Med has been awarded the contract for the air ambulance service from the end of February Credit: Gulf Med/Andrew-Iles

The State is to fully fund the air ambulance helicopter service initiated by a north Cork-based charity.

Maltese company Gulf Med has been awarded the contract for the air ambulance service from the end of February.

AirMed&Rescue reports that the charity, Irish Community Air Ambulance, based in Rathcoole, north Cork is to rebrand to “Critical” and will focus on expanding its ground-based volunteer emergency medical responder network.

It says it will undertake this expansion in co-operation with the National Ambulance Service.

The charity air ambulance has been tasked to more than 1,800 serious incidents and emergencies since it began flying in 2019.

Emergency air medical response is also provided by the Air Corps, based in Athlone, Co Westmeath, while air-sea rescue is provided from four Irish Coast Guard bases run by CHC Ireland.

Interviewed recently on C103 Cork Today, Critical chief executive officer Micheál Sheridan said the charity always felt it should have been a Government-funded service.

About The Author

Afloat.ie Team

Email The Author

Afloat.ie is Ireland's dedicated marine journalism team.

Have you got a story for our reporters? Email us here.

We've got a favour to ask

More people are reading Afloat.ie than ever thanks to the power of the internet but we're in stormy seas because advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news sites, we haven’t put up a paywall because we want to keep our marine journalism open.

Afloat.ie is Ireland's only full–time marine journalism team and it takes time, money and hard work to produce our content.

So you can see why we need to ask for your help.

If everyone chipped in, we can enhance our coverage and our future would be more secure. You can help us through a small donation. Thank you.