The ambulance service’s current target is for 80 per cent of life-threatening calls to be responded to in under 19 minutes, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said.

“Hospital turnaround data is being collated on a national basis, which I think is important,’’ he said.

“That will allow an assessment of performance in the handover of critically ill patients in the system as a whole, covering the response and collection times.’’

Mr Kenny said the system was not perfect by any means, adding that the Health Service Executive had acknowledged there was a potential for delay at times of high demand in the emergency care system.

He added that there was increased investment in the sector, including in the provision of new ambulances.

The Taoiseach was responding to Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin who said last week that the RTÉ programme, Prime Time, had revealed the "shocking'' state of the health service.

One Wexford man had explained how he rang 999 on behalf of his father who had chest pains and, even though they could see the hospital from their own home, it took the ambulance over 50 minutes to arrive, he said.

"Unfortunately his father passed away,'' said Mr Martin.

“This man could not understand why ambulance control did not explain there would be a delay, as he would have been able to drive his father to the hospital within a few minutes.’’

He said when the man queried this afterwards, he was told people were not normally told there would be delays unless they asked.

Mr Martin said a whistleblower from the mid-west had said ambulance crews were run ragged and “going without food for hours’’, trying to respond to patients because of a lack of ambulances.

She had also said there were not enough vehicles to cover an emergency, he added.