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

I thank the Minister of State for the opportunity to highlight the need for a primary care centre in Tullow. We have applied for three primary care centres and there has not been an update on any of them since. The first is a primary care centre in Tullow. We also applied for an injury clinic in Carlow and a primary care centre in Borris. There is a need for these centres given the growth in Carlow's population and the ageing population. Injury clinic and primary care centres are also needed to alleviate pressure on the nearest hospital in the neighbouring county.

Carlow is one of the fastest growing counties in Leinster according to the Central Statistics Office, CSO. Carlow town now has more people living in it than Kilkenny city, yet we have no hospital. We have extensive pressure on the out-of-hours service and 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 service to properly serve the people of Carlow given our growing population and the demand on this service. Since 2016, the population of County Carlow has grown by 9% or 5,036, bringing the total to 61,968. The CSO figures indicate that the population of Carlow town is 27,351 and the population of Kilkenny city is 27,184. Carlow town's population figures include the area of Graiguecullen. The town is now bigger than Kilkenny city. That is some information for the House.

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