Micheál Carrigy (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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The Government's primary care strategy, which includes Sláintecare and the primary care infrastructure programme, aims to significantly expand primary care centres across the country. The original programme identified over 130 primary care centres. More than 100 of these centres have now been completed and are operating nationally, including one in Longford town, which serves a town with a population of 10,000. However, a number of centres remain delayed due to procurement issues, site acquisition problems or changes in delivery models. Communities and local areas in Edgeworthstown, Granard, Ballymahon and the surrounding hinterland have been waiting many years for delivery of primary care centres. In response to parliamentary questions I submitted since being elected to the Dáil going back to January 2025, we received replies from the HSE that the planning was currently progressing through design phase with a view to lodging for planning permission in Edgeworthstown. In Granard the HSE was exploring options to purchase and proceed with a capital funded centre. In Ballymahon clarifications had been sought from tender parties and tender evaluation was to take place in mid-January followed by the tender award thereafter. Further replies to parliamentary questions in late 2025 showed that basically everything was at a standstill.

Given the length of time these projects have been discussed and raised repeatedly by me in parliamentary questions and in the Oireachtas, can we outline what the current plan is for delivering primary care centres in these towns and their communities? When can we expect to hear progress on their delivery? The Edgeworthstown, Granard and Ballymahon projects are stalled with tenders submitted. All we get in replies now is that we are reassessing our options. These have been discussed for years. The people of Longford and the people of these towns deserve first-class facilities. When will I see the delivery of first-class primary care centres in the towns of Ballymahon, Edgeworthstown, Granard, their surrounding areas and more importantly their surrounding communities?

I acknowledge and thank the Minister for Health for the significant funding in the capital plan for 2026 for St. Joseph's Care Centre, a project announced by the Tánaiste a number of years ago. It is a multi-million euro investment into a state-of-the-art centre. However, we need state-of-the-art primary care centres in our satellite towns. With the announcement regarding wastewater treatment plants that can now be used for planning permission, we will see expanded development in a number of those towns with those wastewater treatment plants being put in ahead of the capital infrastructure in years to come.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Carrigy for this question. I will first say how delighted I am to hear of the significant investment plan at St. Joseph's. I thank the Deputy and our colleague and friend, Councillor Peggy Nolan, for her tireless advocacy in relation to that. I remember meeting her about this on a number of occasions. Along with the Deputy, she was rightly a strong advocate for it. That is good news for St. Joseph's and good news for Longford. I look forward to the investment plans announced by the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, progressing and to the benefits they will bring to people in St. Joseph's. It is a wonderful place that needs capital investment.

I take seriously the point about Longford being an area where we want to see more housing supply. I hope the decisions we have taken over the past number of days, particularly on developer-led approaches to water infrastructure, will speed up the delivery of housing in rural and regional Ireland, including County Longford. I take the point that as we increase our housing supply and population, we will need to see an increase in our health and social services as well. Therefore, the issue of the delivery of primary care centres in County Longford is an important one that the Deputy has been pursuing for some time. We have seen significant progress on primary care centres across the country. We now have 180 opened and a further seven under construction. It is the truth that as of today Longford is served by just one primary care centre, which is Flancare primary care centre in Ballyminion, just outside Longford town.

While good services are provided there, including GP services, ophthalmology, counselling, community intervention, social work, immunisation, health promotion, some diabetic retinal screening, pulmonary services and addiction services, it is clear there is a need for a significant expansion in the primary care network. The HSE has advised that a satellite speech and language therapy service is now being offered to children two days a week from Ballymahon medical centre. It is in a room being rented from the HSE. I know that it is not yet in a primary care centre, but it is a new service that I think is making a difference to children in the area.

My note here tells me that, as the Deputy told the House, there have been some issues. The HSE advised a preferred developer for Edgeworthstown primary care centre last year that it would not be progressing with the project and that it was reviewing the most appropriate options to proceed with the development and conducting an overall health service needs assessment for the county as a whole. It is looking at the needs in Granard and Ballymahon as well. The Department of Health and the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, are currently waiting to hear back from the HSE in terms of its service needs assessment for the county. We are very eager to get that as a Government. We want to be in a position to progress the roll-out of primary care centres, so I urge that the work be completed as quickly as possible. On foot of the Deputy raising this question in the Dáil today, I will perhaps arrange for him to have a meeting with the Department of Health and the HSE capital team in this regard. We have capital funds available. We have a variety of ways in which we can roll out and deliver primary care centres, but we need that service needs assessment to be concluded as a matter of urgency.

Micheál Carrigy (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Tánaiste once again for his support, along with the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, in respect of significant investment in St. Joseph's Care Centre. I would welcome a meeting with the HSE capital team to speed up this service needs assessment, which has been dragging on over the last 12 months. The people of Longford need first-class facilities, the same as every community in our country. My priority is to make sure we get those facilities in the towns of Ballymahon, Granard and Edgeworthstown. As the Tánaiste said, we are going to see a significant increase in population in those areas, where planning permissions were turned down previously on the basis that there was no capacity in the wastewater treatment plant system. With the new developer-led proposals that went through Cabinet in the last number of days, we will see a significantly increased population. We want the services in those towns to service that population level when it comes in. Therefore, I would welcome an opportunity to sit down and meet that HSE team to make sure we progress and secure the funding to deliver these much-needed projects. I thank the Tánaiste.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I think that is right. County Longford is a county that has so much going for it and so much potential if we can put the public services in place that are badly needed. The purpose of the Deputy's question today is health. I know his passion and commitment around third level education access as well. We are seeing the benefit of the Technological University of the Shannon in counties like Longford. I look forward to continuing to work with the Deputy and support him in this work.

I have heard what he and the people of Longford have said, particularly in relation to the need for clarity on the next steps to delivering improved primary care facilities in the county, especially in Ballymahon, Granard, Edgeworthstown and the communities and areas they serve. I will arrange through my office for the Deputy to have a meeting with senior HSE capital representatives. I will obviously link in with the Minister for Health, as I know the Deputy has been. She will be supportive of his work in this regard.

From our point of view as a Government, we have significant capital to spend now. The challenge here is speed and wanting to roll out things as quickly as possible. It is about getting that service needs assessment back and clarity from the HSE on what it would like to see done in the county. The Government will not be found wanting in terms of responding positively.