Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have asked about the role of the primary care centres many times. I still do not know and no one seems to be able to tell me why the intervention of the primary centres has not shown a visible improvement in the delivery of services to the patient at local level. Given the extensive nature of the facilities, I thought the intervention would have been of benefit to the patient who did not require major surgery for example and who required access to a consultant or a GP etc. It is local, it is available, so why does it not happen? Incidentally, in one particular case, I discovered the opening hours of the primary care centre were two hours earlier than was the case with the GP service previously. I would like that question answered.

I feel we have a duty not to give a false impression to the general public as to what can be done. The rainy day fund comes up. It should be known and recognised that the rainy day fund is there for a purpose. Revenue accruing to the Exchequer is removed from one particular area or a number of areas. There is a debate about where it should go. Should it go into the rainy day fund to prepare for pitfalls that are visible on the horizon right now, like Brexit and other things, or should it go into current expenditure? It is as simple as this. We know what happened before when current expenditure went out of hand as a percentage of our economic performance.

I want to hear what the answers are. I would, however, also like everybody to recognise that there are consequences in the event of current expenditure exceeding the recommended rate of gross domestic product, GDP, gross national product, GNP, or any other measurement. If we have another recession like the one we have barely come out of now, that will be permanent because we will not find so many people ready to bail us out the next time.