Charlie O'Connor (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to make a contribution to this important debate and I compliment the Opposition on giving us this opportunity. I always take an interest in health matters and this goes back to the founding of the then planning board under the chairmanship of Deputy Woods, which set the tone for Tallaght Hospital. I was proud to be involved all the way through the planning process and to be on the MANCH board which founded the hospital in 1988. I am proud of the hospital which is within sight of where I live. There will always be challenges and difficulties, but I want to acknowledge that point.

I took the opportunity last week, when speaking on a similar motion, to talk about cancer services in Tallaght. I will not repeat everything I said, but as evidence of the Government's commitment, it will be expected that Tallaght Hospital will be designated as one of the eight major cancer centres when the cancer report is finalised.

I was interested to hear what my colleagues said about developments in primary care. We have been very proud of the development of primary care centres in Tallaght, such as the health centres in Jobstown and the GP centres in Brookfield and Killinarden. I highlight these developments because they are making a tremendous contribution to primary care needs in the Tallaght area. However, there is one problem at the Millbrook Lawns health centre, which was damaged in a fire several years ago. We have been campaigning to have the development programme started. I would like the Minister of State to convey my disappointment to the Minister that the builders are not yet on site. I will continue to press this with the Minister, departmental officials and the HSE. It is important that my local community gets that particular centre. I have pursued these issues for four and a half years and I will continue to do so.

I strongly support the concept of primary care in the community. There should be a seamless connection between primary care and the local hospital. We should stress that to HSE management at every possible opportunity. People are very proud of the development of GP services in north County Dublin and I welcome that move. However, we also need centres in Dublin south west, especially in Tallaght. I hope that the Minister's officials will look at that issue and develop it as much as possible.

I come from a health board background. I was on the Eastern Health Board from 1994. I was the founder chairman of the south-west area health board and I was committed to that particular concept. Many of us in this House are frustrated that we still must fight with officials to get information. We table Dáil questions but we do not get proper answers. We are brought to briefing sessions but we do not get the information we want. I will go to the briefing session next week, under the chairmanship of Deputy Sexton, and I look forward to it. However, the HSE is still not doing simple things. Why are we not given phone numbers of local officials so that we can get information from them? We would not have to table Dáil questions if that was the case.

Whatever about the Mater Hospital site — I do not want to excite Deputy Twomey — I have been——

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