Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Serious commitments were made in the programme for Government about the protection of services in rural Ireland. The GP out-of-hours service is really important in assisting people who need GP services out of hours or at weekends. A huge burden is taken off accident and emergency units if such people are properly facilitated. However, there is a proposal in the mid-west, announced only yesterday, for a very serious curtailment of such services that will affect people in east and west Clare. In my view, the proposal is crazy and has the capacity to put a greater burden on an already over-extended accident and emergency service in Limerick. As the Tánaiste knows-----

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