Catherine Ardagh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish the boys in green the very best of luck against Italy this evening. The entire nation will be cheering them on and we are all hoping for success.

We are all familiar with the phrase "your health is your wealth" and the importance that those in need of medical assistance receive it in an appropriate and convenient environment. I raise in that context the issue of primary care centres. In 2012, the then Minister for Health, then Deputy and now Senator Reilly, announced 35 primary care centres in locations throughout the country. In a written reply in December 2015, the progress made in getting the primary care centres which the Government had promised just three years earlier can be described as poor at the very best. One of the primary care centres the Minister had committed to building in 2012 was in Crumlin-Drimnagh, in my constituency. The reply received regarding the primary care centre for Crumlin-Drimnagh was, "Planning not completed in timeframe for PPP". This explanation is shocking, that the Government would commit to building a primary care centre and would allow a situation to arise in which the planning was not completed in the timeframe for a public private partnership. It is unacceptable. The residents of Crumlin and Kimmage are not alone. A primary care centre was promised for Knocklyon and Rathfarnham, and the explanation for the fact that it had not progressed was also "Planning not completed in timeframe for PPP". When communities are promised something as important as a primary care centre, it should be honoured, or the basis for not proceeding should be much better than the fact that planning was not completed in a certain timeframe. It should not be the case that these announcements are done as a public relations stunt for the relevant Minister or Department and are then forgotten about. I call on the Minister for Health to review the 2012 commitments made and provide an honest appraisal of what progress has been made, what progress he expects to be made over the coming years and what primary care centres announced in 2012 will be progressed.