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

I thank the Minister of State for attending.

Carlow is one of the fastest growing counties in Leinster according to the Central Statistics Office, CSO, figures. Although Carlow town now has more people living in it than has Kilkenny city, we have no hospital. Earlier this year, the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, came to Carlow and saw the pressure on our out-of-hours service and the limited use of a perfectly good X-ray facility in St. Dympna's Hospital.

We need an injury clinic in Carlow to make use of the good facilities already there and to allow for the expansion of the services to properly serve the people of Carlow. As for the growth in population and demand on the service, I note the population of Carlow has had the biggest growth since 2016, at 9%, bringing the county of Carlow to a total of 61, 968. Again, were the Minister of State to look at the CSO figures, he would see Carlow town has a bigger population than Kilkenny city. That, in itself, leads the way for a very significant injury clinic to be put into Carlow because of the population.

The CSO figures have the population of Carlow town at 27,351 and Kilkenny city’s population is at 27,184. The Carlow town population figures include Graiguecullen.

Part of Graiguecullen is in Laois, but it is just a short walk across the River Barrow and these people use the services in Carlow; they do not go to Portlaoise and instead use all the Carlow services. If there was a minor injury unit in Carlow, and of course in other towns that need them across the country, pressure would be taken off regional accident and emergency departments. It would alleviate the situation of people waiting hours just to get an X-ray. This is something that concerned me. I am not blaming the staff in Kilkenny hospital, but over the last bank holiday weekend St. Luke's General Hospital Kilkenny asked that people not attend the accident and emergency department unless they really had to because of staff pressures. I appreciate the staff are doing an excellent job, but they announced people should not go to the accident and emergency department in Kilkenny unless they needed to because the staff were under so much pressure.

We have an excellent X-ray department, a vaccination clinic and out-of-hours services, yet the people are being sent to Kilkenny hospital. It is unfair on people and on the hospital. The X-ray department in Carlow operates on a part-time basis with limited daily X-ray facilities. It needs to be open five days a week. This would again take the pressure off Kilkenny. I do not want the staff of Kilkenny to think I do not appreciate the good work they are doing. What is the plan for increased resources for St. Dympna's Hospital? Is the Minister going to look at a build for a minor injury clinic elsewhere? We need to look at a primary care centre. I am aware it is part of the plan going forward. I was told the HSE proposed to deliver a primary care centre for Tullow, Rathvilly and Hacketstown using its own direct build mechanism. The HSE said its capital plan would fund it. The HSE then told me this was only identified last year. Then I was told it was to begin in quarter 4. It is still not there. This is a huge centre promised for a long time. I ask the Minister of State to go back to the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, to see if this can be pushed urgently.

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