The average response time by ambulances for Category 1 life-threatening cases across the country has increased year-on-year since 2019, according to new figures obtained from the National Ambulance Service.
Last year it was 26 minutes.
In the Western region last year, one person was waiting 22 hours for an ambulance.
During the first two months of this year, one person in the south of the country was waiting over 13 hours for an ambulance.
The data shows that the number of calls where the patient was deceased by the time an ambulance reached the scene last year was 890 cases nationally.
This is broken down into 294 cases in North Leinster, 306 cases in the Southern region and 290 cases in the Western region.
Last year, nationally, 34% of ambulances took more than an hour to handover a patient to a hospital, due to overcrowding, the highest percentage figure since 2019.
The figures were obtained by Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín, under a set of Parliamentary Questions.
In its written response to the questions, the HSE's National Ambulance Service (NAS) said that the figure for the ambulance fleet is 280 but the numbers may fluctuate due to new ambulances arriving and the swap out of older vehicles.
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It said that the service does not report response times on a per-ambulance station basis and that this is not deemed a key performance indicator for the Health Information and Quality Authority, the Department of Health or the NAS.
The NAS said that in 2019, 85% of ambulances were cleared from hospital in less than an hour.
So far this year, for the first two months, 72% of ambulances were cleared from hospital in less than an hour.
The NAS said that it does not report data on a county basis where a patient has passed away by the time an ambulance arrives.
The service said it does not respond to cases where a patient has been declared deceased by a doctor, unless requested to do so by gardaí.
The HSE said that last year, the NAS set up a new Tactical Management Unit operating 24/7 to support staff and proactively manage pressures and escalations within the service.
It said it works with acute hospitals to reduce the impact of delayed turnaround times on the ability to respond to 999 calls in the community.
