Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As the Minister of State said, this is a fantastic place. The Church of Annunciation has been there for many years. It will be pulled down. The site is very large. It is in the heart of Finglas. I do not know why we cannot decide that this project can move ahead much more quickly. The Minister of State referred to the second quarter of this year. We are in the second quarter of this year. We are talking about a design team, but we do not even have that.

I always thought there were prototypes, and visited one elsewhere in the country built by the HSE. Whether those prototypes are suitable for this site, is having to go through a design team absolutely necessary? Surely a prototype could be adopted for the site, which is quite large.

The Minister of State is correct about the population in north and west Finglas being older. Many people in the area, including my mother, have passed away and have not been able to avail of this centre because this has been going on for ten years. We were number one on the list, well ahead of many primary care centres the Minister of State mentioned. We ran into a bit of trouble, but that should not have stopped us. We should have moved ahead. I need a commitment that this will be done, and I want to know how long it will take and whether the funding is in place. It should not be the case that when the design is completed, we will see about the funding. I want to hear whether the funding is there.

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