Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for allowing me to update the House on this matter. Significant consideration has been given to developing primary care centres for both Maynooth and Leixlip. Since 2015, while several site locations for a primary care centre in Maynooth were explored, no suitable option has come about. As a result, a larger primary care centre will be built in Leixlip to serve both the Maynooth and Leixlip populations and their surrounding areas. However, and importantly, as part of that plan, the HSE will continue to deliver health services locally from the Maynooth health centre which will serve as a satellite and complementary unit to the larger north-east Kildare primary care centre in Leixlip. The development of the larger primary care centre in Leixlip has some advantages for service users which include access to a larger multidisciplinary team and the co-location of both core services and the enhanced community care programme community specialist teams in a larger and improved clinical space. It is welcome news that we are moving forward with more services in that region generally. A schedule of accommodation is being finalised with a view to the HSE tendering in the second quarter of 2025. I recognise that the population is growing in Leixlip and Maynooth. I welcome the HSE's commitment to continuously review infrastructure in those areas in conjunction with Kildare County Council. I examined the location, distance and public transport routes between Maynooth and Leixlip to best understand how people would access the more significant service that will be available in Leixlip. I am aware that Maynooth continues to grow. It was the original intention to have that facility there. A number of issues have been thrown up in that infrastructure process that give me pause as Minister for Health as to how we will deliver better infrastructure around the country.

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