Ireland's first charitably funded air ambulance, operated by Irish Community Rapid Response (ICRR) and staffed by National Ambulance Service medical personnel, is to be grounded indefinitely from the 3 April due to a lack of funds. The service has flown more than 351 missions in just under eight months since it began operating the helicopter emergency medical service.

Operations manager for the charity Ruth Bruton says: “We are incredibly upset that lives will be lost due to the grounding of this service at this time, especially given how vital frontline medical support is during the COVID-19 pandemic and how incredibly successful the service has been to date.”

ICRR had already implemented harsh cost-cutting measures in an effort to continue, which included the laying off of non-essential staff, cutting the hours of current staff and the already introduced five-day operational week.

“Our sincere thanks go out to the people of Ireland who supported this service and kept it flying for the last eight months. You have all been part of a community that has saved hundreds of lives and impacted many, many families. We could not have got off the ground without every single person who donated money, gave their time to fundraise or share our mission,” Bruton adds.

All fundraising avenues have been extinguished due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a last resort, ICRR immediately sought interim support from the Irish government, however, it has yet to receive correspondence from those in government.