Dundalk- Carlingford candidate calls for ambulance station in Cooley

A Labour candidate for Dundalk and Carlingford has made the building of an ambulance station in the area a central issue in his local election campaign.

Ravensdale native, Jamie O’Hare says it is time for an ambulance station on the peninsula, to improve response times to the Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda.

“Realistically, Louth County Hospital is not going to reopen anytime soon and in the meantime, families on the peninsula face a long journey to hospital in Drogheda, in an emergency,” he said.

“There is no family on the peninsula that hasn’t experienced this issue and ours is no different.

“In 2017, my own son, Eoghan was born in the back of the car when we failed to make it inside the Lourdes Hospital in time – although it was a close-run thing!”

Eoghan was delivered in the passenger seat of the family car right outside the Lourdes Hospital in a dramatic turn of events that Jamie and his wife, Jenny say might have avoided had there been an ambulance on the peninsula.

Mr O’Hare said: “We got to the door of Drogheda hospital. I had rang ahead while coming up the motorway and there were three midwives waiting at the door.

“When we pulled off the motorway and approached the roundabout that links the Monasterboice road and the road past the retail park, as luck would have it, an ambulance with the siren on came from Monasterboice in front of us. I was able to get behind it and follow it to the hospital.

“When we got to the door, the midwives had the baby delivered in the car within a minute of us pulling up.”

Mr O’Hare says there are other family stories involving the race from the peninsula to hospital in Drogheda that did not end so well.

“There are far more remote parts of the Peninsula than Ravensdale and people living in these areas pay taxes like everyone else, yet they are at a disadvantage in an emergency. Ardee has an ambulance station, why shouldn't we?   

“Anything we can do to improve response times between the peninsula and the Lourdes Hospital has to be looked at and a local ambulance station seems the obvious answer.

“Should I be fortunate enough to gain a seat on Louth County Council, I will use that platform to argue for an ambulance station on the peninsula at every opportunity.”

Knocking on doors across the electoral area in advance of the Local Elections in June, Mr O’Hare says that this issue is hitting home for local families who have all come up against this problem in one way or another.

His selection as a Labour candidate in the area is to be officially confirmed in the coming days at a selection convention in Ravensdale.

He says he is also campaigning on road safety issues and for a new approach to planning that will allow young couples to build a life and a home on the peninsula.