The Emergency Medical Response Charity CRITICAL is one of three charities chosen by employees of the daa, the operator of Dublin and Cork airports, to support through their fundraising efforts in 2025.
CRITICAL is Ireland’s leading Volunteer Emergency Medical Response charity and its mission is to save lives through a network of volunteer emergency medical responders. The doctor and community first responders work closely with the National Ambulance Service and are tasked to care for the sickest and most seriously injured patients.
The type of taskings include chest pain, stroke, cardiac and respiratory arrest, falls and road traffic collisions.
The charity responded to 1,308 taskings, where a volunteer responds to an emergency 999 call, last year. CRITICAL is operational in 25 counties with a number of new groups due to launch in Balbriggan, Ennis and Youghal.
daa, has committed to match any monies raised by staff and passengers, just as it did last year when daa’s Charity of The Year programme raised a total of €500,000 for its chosen charities, including €250,000 in matched funding.
David Tighe, CEO of CRITICAL, has welcomed the daa announcement. He said: “CRITICAL is providing an invaluable service by working with the National Ambulance Service to ensure that anyone who is experiencing difficulties such as chest pain, stroke or cardiac arrest will be seen to within as quick a time as possible. However, the charity depends on donations from the public in order to continue providing this life-saving service. We are extremely grateful to everyone who supports us and to the daa for choosing CRITICAL as one of its charity partners for 2025. All the support we get goes towards helping us to achieve our goal of empowering communities to save lives through our ever-growing network of volunteer responders.”
