Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I note what the Deputy says in relation to the specific vacancy in Youghal and I will take back his concern to the Minister.

The Minister fully acknowledges the frustration of those waiting too long to access vital primary care services and that of their families. He agrees that much more needs to be done to address waiting lists for speech and language therapy in addition to other key primary care services. This Government is committed to delivering increased levels of healthcare, with service delivery reoriented towards general practice, primary care and community-based services, as demonstrated through the €195 million in recurring annual funding allocated to the enhanced community care programme. Ultimately, a total of approximately 3,500 whole-time equivalent staff will be recruited into the enhanced primary care programme, with a particular focus on clinical staff such as community therapists and nursing staff. These are being recruited to enable the implementation of 96 community healthcare networks along with community specialist teams for older persons and chronic disease management across the country. In addition, following budget 2024, the Minister, in the preparation of the national service plan for 2024, highlighted the urgent need to ensure a consistent approach at national level to primary care therapy waiting list management. In 2024, a pragmatic approach is being rolled out to put in place considerable standardised infrastructure to support systematic responses to primary care therapy waiting lists. To this end, the Department of Health is engaged in ongoing dialogue with the HSE to advance that programme of work to both develop short-term strategies and to address the longer-term management of waiting lists for primary care therapies. Ultimately, it is expected that this work will ensure consistency of access to primary care therapies irrespective of location and in a much more timely manner than is currently the case.

I take on board the Deputy's concern about the vacancy in Youghal and I will convey that to the Department. The Deputy is correct in saying the departmental reply does not specifically deal with that issue. I will take it back to the Department on his behalf.

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