The Mail can also reveal that a mass email was sent to all staff members across the National Ambulance Service (NAS) last Friday, after our exclusive report sparked \u2018understandable concern\u2019 among the workforce.<\/p>\n
National Ambulance Service (NAS) Director Robert Morton maintained that Garda vetting procedures are actively adhered to \u2018on a regular basis\u2019 within the service.<\/p>\n
They are required to take place once, before a person joins the workforce, with any subsequent vetting of an individual at the discretion of the health minister.<\/p>\n
A spokeswoman for the HSE said it is practice to re-vet all staff engaged in relevant work with the public every three years.<\/p>\n
Staff members \u2018may be re-vetted\u2019 in instances where they are due to be promoted to a higher grade, she added.<\/p>\n
Mr Morton wrote in his email that \u2018a number of former staff\u2019 have been dismissed from the public service following revelations of criminal or sexual assault convictions.<\/p>\n
Serious convictions against paramedics were brought to the attention of the regulator after a HR review at the National Ambulance Service (NAS), sparked after reporting by the Mail last year.<\/p>\n
The NAS has said it \u2018takes any issues or allegations very seriously\u2019 and withdraws privileges from practitioners \u2018permanently\u2019 when wrongdoing accusations are upheld.<\/p>\n
\u2018In those circumstances, NAS would notify the relevant regulator,\u2019 a spokeswoman said.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/107307935-15666271-image-a-15_1774046248535.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The ambulance regulator notified Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill of its concerns<\/p>\n
In a confidential brief to the Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill last December the PHECC raised concerns over its inability to properly regulate the workforce. It said it cannot prevent paramedics removing themselves from the register after being subject to a complaint and is limited in its ability to conduct fitness-to-practice inquiries.<\/p>\n
It was also revealed that there are no obligations on paramedics or employers to inform the regulator of criminal convictions, including for sexual offences.<\/p>\n
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said it is satisfied that no known sexual offenders remain on the active register, stating that the PHECC is best placed to provide updates to its register.<\/p>\n
The PHECC did not respond to queries about when the paramedics with sexual assault convictions were removed from the register.<\/p>\n
The statement provided to the Mail, which confirmed that sexual offenders are no longer active paramedics, was shared in the correspondence sent to all NAS staff last Friday.<\/p>\n
Mr Morton said he contacted the PHECC after our reporting to seek assurances that no criminals were practising in the NAS.<\/p>\n
He claimed the NAS has obligations to Garda vetting, children-first guidelines and the mandatory training required for all staff.<\/p>\n
The Mail previously revealed a litany of claims of sexual assault at the NAS, including a secret report that found most female paramedic staff in the northeast encountered sexual harassment at work.<\/p>\n
The PHECC said in a statement that it \u2018remains committed\u2019 to protecting the public by regulating pre-hospital care in Ireland.<\/p>\n
Work is under way between PHECC and the Department of Health to address gaps in legislation which reduce the regulator\u2019s powers to conduct fitness-to-practice inquiries.<\/p>\n
The PHECC said it was not authorised to reclassify a new division of specialist paramedics, established in 2019. This means the cohort are not authorised to administer advanced medicine by law.<\/p>\n
It added that this placed an unfair burden on a single staff member in the NAS, responsible for oversight of the group, and limited the paramedics\u2019 ability to carry out their roles.<\/p>\n
The agency said the lack of oversight \u2018denies a cohort of patients timely, appropriate, and safer care in the community\u2019.<\/p>\n
However, a HSE spokeswoman rejected this, claiming clinical practice levels \u2018do not always align\u2019 with employment grades and that all paramedics remain subject to fitness-to-practise inquiries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A DOZEN convicted criminals, including eight sex offenders, have been stripped of their status as paramedics and banned…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,539,61,60,149742,43],"class_list":["post-358043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-dailymail","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-m-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}