Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

There are two other things I want to deal with. I will just mention one of them because I will not get to my second question if I get into a dialogue. On GP services, people contact me every day because they cannot get on a GP list. If they get a lung infection, a chest infection or something like that, they have to go to the accident and emergency department. We now hear that routinely. We do not want hospital accident and emergency departments clogged with people who should have been dealt with by a GP. There is a real issue here. There is a perception this is an issue only in rural areas. There are nearly 250,000 people living in Kildare. The area is growing but the services are not growing with it. I am highlighting this as a real and growing issue that is putting pressure on accident and emergency departments. We need to know the plan to deal with that issue.