Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As unscheduled care is really the nature of the business these people are in, it should not come as any surprise. The Minister indicated there are 127 primary care centres that are fully operational. I have one in my area that I have referenced many times. Mr. Reid would be familiar with the one in Balbriggan. No additional staff were provided for that, despite the growing population, and no diagnostic equipment was provided either. I asked about this via parliamentary question recently and the answer I received was that there are no plans in place currently to provide additional diagnostic equipment. This is a local issue but it is extremely important if one has to travel to town all the way from Balbriggan for every little scan.

When will we see the capital plan published and will it contain references to the primary care centres and additional diagnostics for the primary care centres? The reply I got from the Minister's office indicates there were no plans to put in place any additional scanners or diagnostic equipment into Balbriggan. While that was a response to a question on a local matter, is that response being replicated everywhere else or is there a plan in place to have diagnostics in primary care centres? Will additional staff be recruited? I have asked parliamentary questions on all the primary care centres and the answer is the same. I am sure much care and thought goes into it but it is really just the exact same words in every reply. The indication is that services will be provided from within existing resources, which is code for there not being new or additional staff. Is there a staffing plan for the primary care centres?

I am conscious of the time so I will be brief. I absolutely welcome the Damascene conversion to public provision of healthcare rather than private provision. It does not really gel with the National Treatment Purchase Fund but, that aside, how is this squared with the building of a private clinic within the proposed national children's hospital if the plan is for private provision of healthcare to be phased out? We are really stacking in private healthcare and paying for the infrastructure in order that private healthcare can be delivered from within our public services. Now that the Minister has seen the light, that piece of infrastructure might be put to put to better use for the public service.