Profits rise to over €660,000 at David Hall-owned ambulance firm

David Hall is CEO and founder of Lifeline Ambulance

Gordon Deegan

Pre-tax profits at the private ambulance service owned by mortgage campaigner David Hall last year increased to €662,479.

New accounts filed by Mr Hall’s Lifeline Ambulance Service Ltd show that pre-tax profits rose from €17,831 in the prior year.

The largest contributor to the increase in profits was directors’ pay almost halving from €830,197 to €443,197 last year.

The directors are listed as David Hall, Susan Wiseman and former Director General of the HSE, Paul O’Brien

A note attached to the accounts – approved on March 15 – show that during the year, Lifeline Ambulance received services from Mr O’Brien’s Global Leadership and Governance Solutions Ltd and paid Mr O’Brien’s company €36,000.

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This compares with €18,000 in the previous year.

The firm recorded the profit increase after revenues rose by 28.5pc from €6.7m to €8.6m last year.

Commenting on the performance, Mr Hall said: “The company has performed well over the year up to June 2022 and continues to perform strongly. This is due to an increasing need for quality private ambulance services to assist the health service.”

Mr Hall said: “There has been an increase in the need for my company’s services and I feel we deliver the best service in the country.

He said that he has “the best staff” and “to recognise my staff’s efforts, I increased operational staff pay in January 2023 in line with HSE rates of pay which meant on average each operational EMT/paramedic staff had their pay rise by €4,250 per year”.

Mr Hall said that Mr O’Brien assists with management development and strategic and governance oversight.

The business employs 172 staff and operates 50 front-line ambulances, eight organ transplant vehicles with 10 ambulances being built currently with a further 10 ambulances ordered for later this year.

On the performance of the business in the current year, Mr Hall said: “The business is performing well and I expect turnover and profit to increase but the year is not over yet.”

Mr Hall confirmed that the HSE is the firm’s largest client.

He said that “they are currently in the process of tendering for private ambulance services”.

At the end of June last, the company’s shareholder funds totalled €1.53m.

The company’s cash funds declined from €650,126 to €441,703.

The company recorded post-tax profits of €609,505 after paying corporation tax of €52,182.

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