James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I know I have raised this with the Minister previously, but in that specific area around Rathcormack and in north Cork generally, people accessing healthcare services has been a huge difficulty and a huge challenge. In particular, I think of the town of Mitchelstown. I have raised here many times cases of a concentration of the healthcare resources in a primary care centre that is privately operated and run. I meet so many people in that constituency who cannot access their local GP. They have a range of different healthcare concerns, whether it is a young person suffering from an autoimmune disease or elderly people who desperately need to get a healthcare checkup. I want to raise this on the floor of the Dáil with the Minister. It may be our final exchange before the general election. This is a huge issue in north Cork for the constituents I represent and it matters to them. The people I have spoken to can be emotive about this, and they are right to be. They are angry. Will the Minister commit the Department to having a look into what is going in north Cork, including day-to-day healthcare services alongside the out-of-hours GP services?

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