Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Like previous speakers, I congratulate the Minister on his appointment as Minister for Health. I say that, not out of some sense of party loyalty, but because I have seen in a very real way the ability and skill he has applied to the health portfolio as an Opposition spokesperson. I saw it here in the Chamber but more important, I saw it when the Minister came to visit my constituency with a number of other spokespeople from the Fianna Fáil Front Bench. The Minister listened with real integrity to people from that community speak about how they were in the grip of the drugs industry. I very much welcome the commitment in the programme for Government to deal with addiction as a matter of health rather than a criminal matter. I hope to play a part in leading the debate on how we treat addiction differently. I very much look forward to an opportunity to have the Minister and perhaps other Ministers who attended that meeting return to the constituency to speak again to the people there. Unfortunately, yet again over the weekend there was a shooting in my community. The family resource centre which operates in the area had to reduce the services it can provide due to the level of intimidation. We cannot leave any community in the grip of the drugs industry. I hope to work with both the Minister for Health and the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, on that.

I wish to raise with the Minister the commitment in the programme for Government on primary care centres. I have spoken to him many times about the primary care centre in Finglas. We have been campaigning for it for more than eight years. The HSE has done much work on it and a site has been selected in conjunction with Dublin City Council. I ask the Minister to do everything he can in his time in the Department to ensure the primary care centre in Finglas is delivered. It is something that will have major benefits for the ageing population in this area that has real needs but insufficient GP services, as well as for the children who require access to mental health services. I look forward to working with the Minister and to pushing his officials to ensure the primary care centre is delivered.

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