Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

The Deputy is wrong; the service is not developer-led. Primary care centres cannot go ahead without general practitioner involvement. That is a fact. The Deputy will be aware that many of the successful projects have been promoted by general practitioners. I note a facility involving practically all general practitioners in the Killarney area has just been refused planning permission, which is unfortunate.

Who owns the building is not of concern to me nor, I believe, to patients. The State does not have €1.5 billion to invest over the next couple of years in buildings for primary care teams. I have no problem with general practitioners or general practitioners in conjunction with others, raising money to provide them, as has been done in some cases. The key requirement is to have these teams in place as quickly as possible. As I stated, currently 110 are in place and it is hoped that will increase to 200 by the end of the year. Also, 2,700 people are currently in discussions in relation to working on those teams. These are people currently employed by the public health service.

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