SIPTU members in the Dublin Fire Brigade have today decided to ballot for industrial action in response to an attempt to remove their ambulance service call and dispatch function.
It follows the announcement last night, that the ambulance dispatching service will be handed over to the HSE.
SIPTU says that this decision does not comply with recommendations made in the recent report by the health service watchdog HIQA on ambulance services in Ireland.
The union also says that the Dublin Fire Brigade responds to 80 per cent of life threatening emergency calls within HIQA's recommended response time of under eight minutes.