Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, for coming to the House. I have been given the time to raise this important issue and the people of Tullow in County Carlow are depending on me to get answers. In April 2016, a parliamentary question was submitted to the then Minister for Health, the current Tánaiste, on a proposed primary care centre for Tullow, County Carlow. In the reply, the then Minister stated: "The HSE proposes to deliver the primary care centre for the Tullow, Rathvilly and Hacketstown area using the direct/owned-build mechanism." In 2016, the HSE was going to build it. In a reply at the time, the HSE stated that its capital plan would fund the centre.

Following several questions I submitted on the issue since then, I was contacted by the agency to tell me that Tullow had only this year been identified as one of the areas for the development of a new primary care centre which will also serve the local communities in Hacketstown and Rathvilly. The new centre will provide a single point of access to a broad range of much-needed services for the people in Tullow, but only now has the HSE identified a number of interested developers and finalised a list of accommodation.

I have raised this issue again because I am really concerned. The initial information came from the then Minister for Health in 2016. It is now near the end of 2021. In April 2022, six years will have passed. I am no further on than I was in April 2016. Despite having been in contact with the HSE, I cannot even find out where in Tullow this facility will be built. I have only been told that it has identified a site in Tullow but I cannot find out the site location. I do not know how big it is and I certainly cannot find out how long it will take.

A primary care centre is important particularly in towns like Tullow and Bagenalstown in a mainly rural county. During the Covid pandemic waiting lists have increased with delays in people trying to get appointments. Nearly six years later, I am not able to tell people of Tullow, Hacketstown and Rathvilly where in Tullow their centre will be located and when it will be built. I thank the Minister of State for coming in and I hope she has good news for me tonight. It is not acceptable to have to wait six years.

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