Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I again raise the need for additional practical supports for rural communities that are welcoming refugees and international protection persons. I have a public meeting in Ballinasloe tonight and another in Boyle tomorrow. The communities raise the same issues: the lack of services, particularly health and medical services. I have raised this many times and I cannot understand why, when additional people are going into an area, it cannot be understood that doctors are under pressure and no one asks what the HSE can do. The HSE does not seem to be anywhere on the ground. Can we share an additional doctor or nurse in two areas once a week? I refer to anything at all that can be done to get rid of the tension and the frustration, which can easily be avoided if additional resources, particularly around education and health, can be put into areas to get rid of the tension and the frustration in those communities and support them. I do not understand why that is not being done.

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