CLAIMS that ambulances from Derry could not cross the border to help in the aftermath of the Creeslough explosion last year were made because of a “drafting error”.
A committee of Irish and British politicians have moved to clarify details of the report which claimed ambulances could not attend the incident because of visa issues.
Last month it was reported that ambulances based at Altnagelvin Hospital could not respond to the explosion at the Applegreen service station across the border in Donegal.
The disclosure was made to an inquiry by the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly into the operation of the Common Travel Area (CTA) agreement.
“Some ambulances from Northern Ireland could not assist during the explosion that occurred in Creeslough because not all of the paramedics had the necessary visas to cross the invisible border,” Fine Gael senator Emer Currie said.
But the assembly has apologised for the claims.
In a clarification issued on Tuesday, the assembly said it wanted to acknowledge the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) response “was not affected in any way by border or visa issues”.
It said the report should have instead referred to “paramedics” being affected and not ambulances. The BIPA statement added: “The committee wishes to apologise for any confusion that may have arisen.”
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