Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Okay. We hope to see it opening in the middle of 2025.

I want to briefly ask about the capital priorities. Can we get feedback specifically on the primary care centre for Portlaoise? Our population has exceeded Kilkenny city at this point, and we do not have a primary care centre. I know some work is being done. Is it on the priority list? Are the pounds, shillings and pence there to match that? Can the representatives come back with that information?

I will raise the matter of the new health areas, which cannot come quickly enough. My only concern is with where the accountability will be. The HSE and health services are massive, but when trying to break it down into six areas, there is the sense that people may argue over where the boundaries are drawn. We had some of that this morning, and understandably so.

The general idea with the hospitals is that the acute and non-acute would align. There are two systems running in two different directions and CHO 8 is a case in point. The hospital area did not match the other services, which was ludicrous in the first place. That move, therefore, cannot come quickly enough.

In the case of Laois, for example, there is a situation in Graiguecullen, which looks like a suburb of Carlow but is part of County Laois. The population is approximately 4,000 people. The people in Graiguecullen will not be serviced in general. A special arrangement has been made in the area of mental health for a couple of clients who are going to Carlow on a temporary basis since the mental health services were pulled from the small health centre in Graiguecullen. My request to Mr. Gloster is for the health centre in Graiguecullen to be upgraded. He and I both know that when the health areas are set up, they will become an independent republic for health purposes. To some extent, they will. In the real world, they will have a budget. The population of the areas is set out in the documents that are before us today. I have no argument with that. Yet, I am asking about a situation like Graiguecullen. I refer to the urban area and there is a big catchment area around it with a radius of approximately 10 miles. That area urgently needs for the health centre to be upgraded. Does that figure in the plan? If it does not, has the HSE set aside funding to upgrade what is there, as well as to try to draw some services back into it? That is my question. I do not expect Mr. Gloster to have an answer on the hoof for it but he might come back with one.