Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the Minister of State's reply. He mentioned that there are a couple of months. Unfortunately, as we all know, a couple of months is a long time for older people. It is an especially long time when someone is asking their caregiver in the morning if they can go back to where they know best, and the caregiver cannot say they can. A person's whole system could be upset by that fact. On the reply the Minister of State has given me, public representatives in County Kildare have received that over the last number of weeks and indeed up to today. What we cannot understand is this: We have been informed that a certain new service provider has actually visited the centre in Ballyteague and is willing to start in the next couple of days. It is willing to open the centre in Ballyteague GFC as Allenwood daycare centre once again. That is the question we are all asking. For those couple of months, why cannot we allow that provider to reopen the doors in Ballyteague GFC and allow those people to go back and have that cup of tea and meet their friends? That is what they want and what they most need. A couple of months can be such a long time for all those people.

The other ask that has been made by a number of public representatives is that the Minister responsible would go out to Ballyteague GFC and meet the people on the ground. I am asking again tonight that the Minister of State might bring that request back to the relevant Minister. Meeting the people on the ground, talking to them and hearing their stories would allow the Minister to feel the impact this has had. Three months in the life of an older person is a lifetime and can be so life-changing.

I have two requests for the Minister of State today. First, that he brings the request for an on-site meeting back to the Minister as quickly as possible and, second, that he asks the Minister for Health and the HSE why we cannot reopen the centre in Ballyteague given that a service provider has been on-site and has informed local people and, I believe, the HSE, that it can run the site and run the service within a couple of weeks to cover the three months while we are waiting for the new centre to open in Kilmeague.

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