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

Given the age profile in Laois and Offaly, you can see that that will be a particular problem. The CHO areas are problematic from that point of view. For example, when it comes to GP services, we can measure them on the basis of CHO area, but you would not get on a GP's list for love nor money in my area. That has not been possible for the past year. There are people presenting in accident and emergency departments inappropriately because they have an infection or something, whereas going to a GP would resolve the issue by getting an antibiotic or something. I am not sure if we are seeing the information. We might ask the Department if it is possible for it to break this down on the basis of county as well as CHO area, not exclusively dental services, because that makes more sense to us and makes more sense to the people using the services.