Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is very important that we deal with this and I am glad that the Comptroller and Auditor General is preparing a report on it. I will not repeat the issues that have been raised but will add my support to what has been said. In addition, as a result of the PPP model, which I consider to be utterly faulty and adopted for the wrong reasons, the health service suffered. We did not roll out the health centres and that is the most important point. In Galway as well as nationally, there was a call for expressions of interest but not many companies came forward. Those that did come forward backed out, so Galway did not get designated primary care centres. In one sense, I am happy because I do not think they should be PPPs. However, there is no primary care. The one centre that did go ahead went ahead by way of a private model with an enormous rent. The other area did not get a centre at all. There were consequences all round in terms of money, value for money and for our health service. The rolling out of primary care centres in many cases did not happen.