Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

I am obliged to the Ceann Comhairle for giving me the opportunity to raise this issue. Last week, I attended the launch of a report of a community health project in my constituency entitled "Taking the First Steps to a Healthier Fettercairn". There are some 6,500 people and 840 local authority houses in Fettercairn. Development is well under way to bring the overall number of housing units to 1,000 within the next number of months.

Fettercairn is typical of the unimaginative planning and under-provision of facilities that went into large local authority estates in the 1970s and 1980s. It is an area of low income families with a large population of young people and one parent families. Some 1,511 males and 1,858 females finished full-time education aged 15 or under. Almost one fifth of all families are headed by a lone parent. Since the estate was built almost 30 years ago, the people have struggled to make the best they could from the spartan circumstances in which they found themselves. A Trinity College assessment in 2002 found "high levels of stress, smoking and chronic illness".

This report makes a number of recommendations in areas such as health, housing, transport and policing. The one recommendation I wish to highlight this evening concerns the need for a GP presence in Fettercairn given its population of 6,500 and the fact that there is no GP. The report also argues for a medical health centre, an effective primary health care team and access to pharmacy services, but it is the need for GP services that concerns me this evening.

Is there another community of soon to be 1,000 houses that is denied even clinic hours by a GP? I do not know how many towns in the Minister of State's constituency which will soon have 1,000 houses and a population rising to 6,500 people but no GP. This is directly related to the budgetary stroke by Government coming up to the 2002 general election, when it allowed the over 70s, irrespective of their means, free access to the GP. The doctors lost rich private clients in the wealthier parts of this city and so had to be incentivised by Government. The result has been that the poorer areas have been virtually denuded of GPs. What I want to know from the Minister of State is what steps she will take to ensure that something as basic as GP services are made available to the citizens of Fettercairn.

I do not want to compete with the Minister, Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív, or Deputy Mary O'Rourke in criticising the HSE but it was disconcerting to be present when the HSE representative admitted that because of manpower planning and the flight of GPs to more profitable areas, he did not believe a GP service could be provided in the area in the near future.

The Government — the Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats part of it — has taken specific actions the result of which has been to disadvantage the people of Fettercairn. The €1.9 billion funding promised to underpin the RAPID programme was never honoured. Now, the manner of implementation of the medical card for the over 70s has greatly disadvantaged poorer areas of urban Ireland. What action will the Minister take to address this intolerable inequality?

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