Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Members of Sinn Féin were among those who constantly asked, day in and day out, where is the stimulus package and why is there not one. We have produced a stimulus package of €2.25 million and have taken the opportunity in that package to include the provision of primary care centres in order that we can provide in local communities a centre where somebody who is ill or who has a sick child can get the range of services provided under one roof rather than the ragged, disorganised, inefficient and costly system that we have at present. That is what the programme for Government states we will do and that is what we will press ahead to do.

On the question of whether I was involved in terms of the criteria, I was no more involved in the criteria for how primary care centres were selected in the Department of Health than I was involved in the criteria that were used in the Department of Education and Skills for the selection of schools or the criteria that were used in the Department of Transport for the selection of roads.

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