Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)

What is the point of having the CSO provide figures and details regarding the population across the country if the Government keeps ignoring those figures when it comes to the delivery of key services? The CSO tells us how many older people we have, but we are not providing enough nursing home beds for them. The CSO tells us the number of younger people, but we are not providing enough school places for those children. We know that the CSO gives information about a cohort of people who are looking to buy houses, but the Government refuses to provide the necessary housing for them. There are certain counties, particularly in the mid-east, that have seen their population radically increase over time yet Government funding per capita of those counties has not kept pace. Meath has the lowest number of doctors per capita in the country. I am the chair of the Save Navan Hospital campaign and I can tell the Minister of State that a significant number of people who go to the accident and emergency unit in Our Lady's Hospital in Navan are people who cannot get a doctor. Pregnant women who cannot get a doctor have contacted me. People living in Meath for 20 years are still going to their doctor in Dublin because they cannot get a doctor in Meath. I know a person who rang 12 doctors' surgeries in one day trying to get an appointment but could not get into any of them. In the past few days, a doctor in Trim found that her book filled up in the space of half a day as soon as she opened. There is a radical disconnect between the delivery of services and the information the CSO gives us and that has to change.

See this speech in context