Cllr Dwyer said: "County Wexford is the most heavily populated county in the South East region. The seasonal influx of visitors and tourists to the county dramatically boosts the resident population even further. Despite this, our frontline emergency services, have suffered from years of neglect, understaffing and underfunding.

"This weekend, emergency ambulance crews in New Ross, Gorey and Enniscorthy have been forced to resort to industrial action to highlight the crisis in their vital emergency service. I have been approached by a number of ambulance technicians from the outlying stations who all share the same concerns.

"Ambulance crews are working to the same system and at the same staffing levels, that applied over twenty years ago. The volume of road traffic accidents and emergency call outs at that time, amounted to a fraction of todays figures. Despite this they are still rostered to work 55 hours duty and 65 hours on call in the same working week.

"This is a result of serious understaffing and means that time after time, ambulance personnel have to report back for a twelve hour shift, having been out all night on an emergency call out.

"The ambulance personnel wish to provide a quality service to the public but due to this serious understaffing, they cannot help but experience severe fatigue while carrying out their duties. It is disgraceful that their appeals for extra personnel have been ignored for so long that they now find themselves being forced to resort to industrial action.

"The state of Wexford's Fire Brigade Service is another serious cause for concern", Cllr Dwyer continued.

"The average age of the fleet here in County Wexford is approximately 20 years old, with none of these appliances subject to MOT or NCT tests. The Fire Station in Wexford town was built in 1940 and has no training area. The appliances have to be washed down on the side of the road and the roof of the building is constantly leaking.

"The Fire Brigade personnel complain, that County Councils have been buying second hand appliances from the UK, these appliances normally went to Third World countries. Why should Irish Firefighters have to make do with appliances that are no longer fit for service in the UK?

"Having spoken to Firemen in County Wexford, they complain of feeling great apathy and are correctly of the opinion that the general public just do not realise the run down condition of our Fire Brigade service. A site was identified for a new fire station for Wexford town, a year ago, but just how long a finger is this going to be placed on, given current government cutbacks?

"Here in Wexford we have the largest population in the South East region. We have the Europort at Rosslare Harbour. We have enormous volumes of freight travelling by road and rail. The County Council does not even know, at any one time, what hazardous materials are travelling through our county. With all of this we still do not have a full-time professional Fire Brigade Service and our Emergency Ambulance service is seriously understaffed, with morale at an all time low.

"All of this amounts to an appalling disgrace that must be urgently addressed. Excuses and vague promises of remedial action in the future will simply not suffice while our vital emergency services continue to be so grossly neglected in this fashion".