Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have a young fella at home and he kicked a ball for the first time last weekend, so I support the previous comments. He is a future corner forward for Tipperary. Given the way Meath is performing at the moment, it would provide a good training session for him before the championship starts.

On a serious note, I ask that the Leader get an update from the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Butler, on the proposed Fethard primary care centre. I brought this up as a Commencement matter last May. In fairness to the Minister of State, she gave an outline of the progress that is happening and where it is, but it is a number of months later and, until work is on the ground, people will not really see the benefit of it. We have been really lucky in Tipperary with a number of primary care centres that have come through over recent years, when Deputy Harris was Minister for Health. I am thinking of Tipperary town, Carrick-on-Suir, Cashel and Cahir. The primary care centre in the latter town opened only a couple of weeks before Covid started.In a lot of ways, it has been a blessing in facilitating people during Covid. There is a lot of work going on at the moment in Fethard with funding that has gone into primary schools, which are right beside where the primary care centre would be built. There is also a Fethard town park which is funded under the rural generation development fund. The park is being built at the moment on the same grounds proposed for the primary care centre.

The HSE has designated this region as a preferred location for a primary care centre. It will cover not just Fethard but also Killenaule and Ballingarry and a huge area of west Tipperary on the border of Kilkenny. There are some 27 groups in the Fethard region who have all come on board around the project for Fethard town park and the primary care centre. It is a very important project that needs to be speeded up from a departmental point of view if possible. In her role as Leader I be very grateful if Senator Doherty could put a word in.