Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The problem with the Minister's answer is that we have been waiting for a long time for discussions to commence. That was a commitment made by the previous Government. We are now in a situation where we have the Sláinte report. It has identified key recommendations in the area of provision of primary community care, enhancing the services in disease prevention, chronic disease management, moving from a hospital-centric health service to a primary and community care setting and, of course, the key issue in all that is the issue of capacity within the primary care setting. That is fundamental to the delivery of the recommendations in that report, which are also in line and in tandem with Government policy about expanding the primary care setting. The Minister talks about under sixes and over 70s, but the harsh reality is that until the Minister expands and enhances the capacity of GP services in the community, we will not be able to provide what has been identified both in Government policy and in the Sláinte report from the committee chaired by Deputy Shortall. I ask the Minister to give an outline as to whether or not the challenges are because of lack of resources, funding, lack of personnel to roll out the proposals or because there is prevarication, either by the representative bodies or by the Department of Health and the Government.

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