Ambulance service:The Health Service Executive (HSE) has invited tenders to provide private ambulance transport services around the country.
The tender is worth up to €20 million for services provided over a two-year period from November.
A Sinn Féin election candidate in Dublin South East, Cllr Daithí Doolan, yesterday demanded that the Government and the HSE explain whether all ambulance services were to be privatised.
"This was first brought to my attention by Siptu . . . Sinn Féin firmly believe this service to be an essential service to the public and should therefore remain in public ownership," he said.
"The Minister for Health, Mary Harney, must make a public statement on the matter. If she fails to, it will further undermine the public's confidence in her ability to run the healthcare system."
The HSE explained the ambulance service is provided by both public and private operators. "This tender is strictly a recognition of what exists already in our ambulance services . . ." a HSE spokesman said. "The HSE is not aware of any plan to privatise the ambulance service but this is probably because no such plan exists," he added.
The tender is seeking private ambulance operators to provide patient transfer services to and from health facilities, emergency response services and inter-hospital critical care services.
Paul Bell, sectoral organiser with Siptu health division, who represents ambulance crews in the east, said his union was demanding a meeting with the HSE as it had not been consulted on the tender. He claimed this was in breach of Towards 2016.