Irish ICRR Grounding Air Ambulance due Lack of Support

ICCR, April 04, 2020 - ICRR’s board had to make a decision two weeks ago to ground our Air Ambulance Helicopter on Friday the 3rd of April after eight months of service due to the effects of Covid 19 pandemic in our community fundraising campaign.

This was gut wrenching decision for us to make, knowing the impact and lives saved by the service in that short time.

We applied to the government for Interim funding for this vital frontline service to help us through this exceptional times we find ourselves in. It was apparent this week even with all the political support that was provided by a number of cross party politicians that were lobbied by concerned members of the public, no interim financial support is going to come from the Government.

Having a number of conference calls this week with volunteer fundraising groups that support us including our dedicated volunteer fire-fighters that are essential in keeping our Air Ambulance base going, we were informed that in one day this week a small child and a elderly lady with life threatening injures benefited from our service.

Our team worked night and day this week to come up with a solution to avoid grounding the service today, and in a time in our country where bad news is all too common at present in our lives.

With the help of our helicopter provider Sloane Helicopters and their leasing partners, Milestone Aviation, they have given us an extra six weeks credit to come up with alternate funding streams.

I want to say a big thank you to Sloane helicopters for supporting the Irish people in these dark times, allowing the air ambulance to go on saving lives in the short time.

We now need your support more than ever before, we are looking for volunteers to be part of our live saving team, those who are self isolating, give us a few hours of your time in social media, marketing or any fundraising ideas that you have?

We know that a large number of people in our country are having difficulties at this time, I got a call yesterday from a man who lost his job recently and has a young family to support, he has insisted on giving us €10 per month as he said he needs us to be there if anything should happen to his loved ones and all other emergencies such as heart attacks and accidents are still happening.

This week In the England and Wales, BP has came in to sponsor the heli fuel for the air ambulance services. We need a number of companies based in Ireland to please step up and be brand partners with us continue the delivery this life saving service? We need members of the public to please do any innovative fundraising event for us, no matter how small the donation is? Lives still need to be saved in Ireland, please help us to help you?

John Finnegan
Volunteer Chairperson of ICRR
(JF is also a frontline nurse in our health service)