Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)

It is really important that when we have CSO information, we use it to plan for services in areas. I look at my own county of Meath, which has the lowest number of mental health beds, the lowest number of GPs and the lowest number of gardaí per population; has some of the largest class sizes in the State; and has the lowest number of playgrounds per population. The issue of GPs has been in the news in the past 24 hours. I have written to the Minister for Health and the HSE about a case in Ashbourne where, thankfully, we have a new GP. This GP's practice is at risk because they are not being allowed access to the GMS scheme because they are waiting for a lift to be installed in the practice. A reasonable accommodation has been made in the meantime but the GMS scheme is a firm "No". This needs to change. We are desperately in need of GPs so when we have one, we need to hold on them and I ask the Minister of State to look at that.

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